Max Payne: The Payne Of Revenge
by GBrown20
Summary: Following the events of Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne, Max is sadly still on the case. However, not only does he meet a group of new enemies, he meets up with enemies he thought were long gone.
1. Chapter 1

Works Cited

**MAX PAYNE: THE PAIN OF REVENGE (incomplete)  
**

By Gaetano Brown

Characters created by Sam Lake

**Chapter 1: In My Hands**

"God, I turned into such a damsel in distress."

Those were her final words. I couldn't help but wish that Mona and I could have just died together, instead of me remaining alive, feeling my guilt. Swat team came in to find Vladimir Lem and Alfred Woden dead. I felt slightly sad about Woden being killed, but deep down I felt no sympathy. I thought I would be under arrest after all of the murders I had committed and going against orders but Bravura kept me clean and out of jail. He knew at the end that I was framed and didn't want me going to jail for something I didn't do.

As for Mona, I got one last look at her at the city morgue. Mona had faked her first death, but there was no faking this time. Detective Steve Pennington and I went to the funhouse to search for evidence. It had been badly damaged from the fire. We found the Captain Baseball Bat Boy costume that Vinnie Gognitti was in. It had blown up, but there was no blood, not even any evidence that a body had been in it. There was something not right. I began wondering if Vlad and Gognitti set it up just to find me. This would mean Gognitti was still out there.

We searched Mona's apartment. It was also badly damaged. All that was left was bloodstains from when Vlad shot me. While we were searching the funhouse other officers were searching elsewhere, we were trying to find any evidence that would lead us to the rest of Vladimir's army but there was very little left that would give us a clue. Any evidence was either burned or they were hiding it.

When we were done Bravura helped me find an apartment, he wanted my apartment closer to the station. That way if there were ever trouble, help wouldn't be far away. Any furniture that wasn't scorched in my old apartment was moved to my new one. Even with the comfort of the police station only being a minute away I couldn't sleep. I felt guiltier then ever. Wishing that Mona and me didn't even find each other by the elevators at the warehouse. I also felt like I had betrayed my darling wife Michelle. Even though she was dead I felt like my relationship with Mona was wrong, it should have never happened.

I knew I could never forgive myself for what I had done but I had to move on, there was no alternative.

I went down to the station the next day, to see if there was any more evidence found. Bravura tried to keep his cool, the thought of Gognitti running lose out there had his stress level at an all time high. I didn't even bother to knock on his office door I just walked in.

"There wasn't much evidence found." He said with anger. "They tried cleaning everything before we got there. But there were some files found. Parts of the files were burned but all the important stuff was still there."

"What was found in the files?" I asked. I was more curious then ever.

"The files belonged to Alfred Woden. I believe you two know each other. The files were updated the day he was shot, apparently there is another person in charge of his possessions wondering around out there, Vincent Gognitti. Woden wasn't just a rich man he was rich mafia man. He was considered the Godfather of his family. Gognitti was his business man and has Woden's old job as well as his money."

"What relation does Gognitti have with Woden?"

"Exactly the right question, I hate to do this to you Payne but I need you on this one because I have no other detective with the experience to handle themselves out there."

"I accept but how long will it be until I head out."

"It's going to be a while, because we need to find a way to do this silently. Most of that family knows who you are, if they catch you there they will try to kill you."

"I know what that's like." I said and he knew that I wasn't lying on that.

When he said a while, I didn't think he meant hours. It took only a couple hours for us to get the right leverage we needed to do this mission as silently as possible. Bravura didn't want me going alone. He brought fellow detective Stacy Myers to help me. I had wanted to do this mission alone but with so many members of the mafia wanting my head a little help couldn't hurt. She was beautiful but I couldn't let beauty distract me this time, I needed this mission finished and won or else everything I worked so hard for these past few years would be for nothing.

We had gotten an anonymous tip that Gognitti was hiding out in Hells Kitchen, which was all we knew. Bravura managed to get us into a vacant warehouse near the area, no one had been in the building for years, it was the perfect hiding spot. Gognitti had a reputation for being gutless, always sending his group of assassins to do his dirty work. He was quite the talker but he was too chicken to actually kill anybody himself, especially if they were a threat to him. We knew there were other methods to finding Gognitti, he always left traces of his presence.

The time was just about right, the day went dark and the summer heat turned into winter cold. It was the perfect time to go looking for him. Hell's Kitchen was not my favorite part of New York nor was it anyone else's. Hell's Kitchen wasn't a glamorous place in the middle of the night, nothing but thugs out for trouble and underage prostitutes; Hell's Kitchen was an understatement. Every thug on the streets looked at us like we were the criminals. I was use to the reception but Stacy began feeling uneasy.

The allies were bombarded with homeless drug addicts and garbage that the area looked like another world. We wondered around the area a little longer and then my past came back to meet me again. We had arrived at the at Jack Lupino's old hotel. However, now under a different owner, the place looked halfway decent because instead of drunks, it was now drug dealers living in the hotel, Lupino's place had moved up and was now owned by his brother Tom Lupino. I had only met Tom once, he wasn't as tough as his brother but he had more brains then him. He was a better business man then his brother could ever hope to be.

We went right in, no hesitation on either of our parts. Tom wasn't in his office but there were many dealers waiting to offer us some of their stuff. We would have arrested them but this case was bigger then just a couple of drug dealers. The hotel had been remodeled, the new paint tried to hide the sad past that the hotel once had, as if the way it was now wasn't sad enough. We went up the first flight of stairs and could instantly hear talking, one of the voices was obviously Tom but sadly I couldn't make out the other one.

"Payne is on his way, I'm sure of it. We've gotten a lot of tips that he is wondering through the city." Tom said

"We have to be careful, you know what Payne is capable of and with a whole police force by his side we are done for."

I turned around to get ready to bust through the door and then everything went black.

**Chapter 2: Return of an Old Enemy**

I woke up in one of the rooms of the old hotel, the smell of rats and dead bodies filled the air. I tried looking for Stacy but there was no sign of her.

"Well, well, well, look who has fallen into my lap." A deep but familiar voice said. "You probably don't remember me; I'm just one of the many you killed on your little fight to kill the person who murdered your wife and little girl. Remember me, Frank Niagara."

I finally remembered who he was, I had been stuck in a situation like this with him once before but there was a baseball bat in that scene. Thankfully there was nothing like that this time.

"Ya know Payne, I could kill you, and lord knows I want to but I'll leave that until much later."

"Where's Stacy?" I asked.

"Ah, he speaks. Your little partner is getting a discipline lesson by Tom and his boys. Such a pretty girl, I wish I could join in but I much rather watch you suffer because of all the misery you put me through. Do you know how it feels to have your life nearly taken away from you by someone else?"

"Yes I do." I said honestly, I didn't like the man but he was right, he was bitter from I did. Not that he didn't have it coming; three shots to the head with a baseball bat kind of set me off.

"Yea, I guess you do. I guess losing you wife and baby girl like that can make a person angry but why take it out on me."

"You held me hostage and played baseball with my head."  
"True, but you're the one who decided to show up on my property. You kill my good friend Jack for no reason and try to kill me too, quite the night you had wasn't it Payne.

That night started to become more and more clearly, the night that I killed Jack Lupino was the night I met Mona, we had a drink at the bar and she slipped a drug in my drink, I woke up in Niagara's place.

"Payne you have no clues how much I'm holding back and trying not to kill you but I have to wait. We want to show you what we've done to your little partner before we kill her too."

My anger was at its boiling point, so much that the chair I was in couldn't hold me anyone. I used all my might and kicked Niagara straight in the face. He fell to the floor and his gun left his hands. The ropes holding me snapped and I grabbed the gun. Niagara pulled out a gun from his shoe and I quickly responded by shooting him to smithereens, there was no way he survived that one.

Besides a black eye from when his henchman knocked me out, I came out unscathed but I knew Stacy wouldn't be so lucky. I knew she was still in the hotel and because of my previous visits, I knew every hiding spot there was. They couldn't hide for long.

Knowing his boys, they probably thought I was still tied to the chair with Niagara still running his mouth like there was no tomorrow. They would never see me coming. There were no other tenants in the building besides a bunch of drunks cluttering the halls, so I knew that I wouldn't get caught. I knew that there wasn't much time; I had to find Stacy and get out of there as soon as possible.

The hotel hardly had any lights. The only lights that were lit were the emergency lights and from the looks of the hotel I was very surprised that it had them. In order to get to the rest of the rooms, I had to cross through the bar, which was easier said then done. Knowing Niagara, he probably had guards all over that part of the hotel. I got close to the door of the bar, there were no voices but that didn't mean there wasn't anybody in there. I tried to crack the door open a little to get a view but keeping it closed enough to where I wouldn't get noticed. My luck was great; there was a nice glass case for the fire extinguisher that reflected the rest of the room. Surprising the coast was clear.

The bar looked like it hadn't been used in years, dust piled over everything and the booths and tables were a mess. There was an uncomfortable silence in the hotel, like something bad was being set up for me. I walked across the bar to the other door only to hear voices.

"Man, I don't want to stand guard here all night for nothing. I want a piece of her too."  
"I told you, you are to stay here. We need to keep an eye out for Payne."

"Do you really think that mother fucker is going to get lose? The boss ain't that easy to get passed."  
"Well Payne's gotten passed him before, and the same could very well happen tonight, so stand guard!!"

This was all I needed. I was so close to Stacy and yet I had a guard and probably a dozen more thugs to pass. I had to think of something. Even with the gun in my hands the slightest gun shot would send the rest of the thugs running my way like a bunch of drunk football players. The only place to go through was the air vent above me. Thank god I wasn't Closter phobic. I had to be careful not to make any noise, which was tough in a steel air vent.

I tried to climb in as silent as possible, but it echoed like crazy. Finally I was able to get in, once I was in the echo wasn't as bad. I silently moved forward. I finally got to the point where the guard was standing. I went extra slow to get past him but it was becoming difficult. No matter what I did, the echo just wouldn't stop and finally I could see that he was getting suspicious. I finally gave up and just sped up and he didn't hesitate to start shooting. Bullets kept following me and there wasn't enough space to shoot back. Finally I reached a point in the vent where I could sit up and shot, I could here him running through the door and I could hear where he stopped. I just aimed and fired. I heard him fall to the floor but I knew the noise would wake some unwanted guest up.

The vent seemed to go on forever. I reached a point where voices were beginning to fill the air. I crawled a few more feet to see if I could make them out but I couldn't, the vent was making it hard to hear anything. I crawled farther to see if there were any more options. I crawled for several feet and found another vent opening. I could hear and see everything from there. What I saw was the sickest site in my life. Stacy was unconscious and drenched in blood but the bastards were still having sex with her like a bunch of rapid dogs. I busted through the vent and both men through Stacy to floor and stood up to grab their guns, I beat them to the punch and shot up the whole room. Three more men came bursting through, I shot them and grabbed their guns because I was out of ammunition. I picked up Stacy and ran as fast as I could out of there. Luckily there were no more of Niagara's men in the building. I had to find a payphone because Niagara had smashed mine. I reached a payphone and called for backup and an ambulance for Stacy.

Bravura brought me directly back to his office. Hearing what had happened scared him so much he almost had a heart attack.

"I wish you would let doctors look at you Payne." He said.

"I'm fine, how's Stacy?"  
"She lost a lot of blood but she's going to be ok, she woke up on the ride to the hospital." Hearing that made me feel a little better but I felt terrible that it happened in the first place.

"Payne, there is another reason why called you too my office."

"And why is that sir."

"It's about Mona Sax, her body went missing yesterday." He said to my surprise. Somehow I thought he was joking to make me feel better but the expression on his face didn't show it.

"How?" I asked.

"We don't know, it was either stolen, or someone was faking her death." I wouldn't be surprised if she was faking, Mona had been known for doing that. "Payne, it looks like we have two cases on our hands, one is Gognitti and the other is finding out whether Sax is dead or alive. I'm leaving you with the Gognitti case and I'll send someone else on the Sax case."  
"But sir, I know Mona better then anyone, if anyone should go it's me."

"You also know Gognitti better then anyone and Gognitti is a bigger threat and plus I don't want your personal issues with Sax getting in the way". He said very discretely and in a way it made sense, I had let my feelings for Mona go too far, so far that it almost got me killed in the process.

But still, the thought of Mona being alive out there made my head swerve in circles. I went to visit Stacy at the hospital before I set out again to see how she was doing. The hospital room was full of flowers and get-well notes from fellow officers and family. She woke up when I walked in and smiled.

"Didn't exactly go as planned did it?" She said with a laugh.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, we never could have seen it coming, no matter how hard we tried."

I could see the cuts and the stab wounds on her arms from where I was sitting.

"Do you remember any of it?" I asked

"I remember waking up tied to a chair, once I woke up they were relentless, they started

She hitting, kicking, and they did it so hard that the ropes that I was tied with couldn't support me and snapped. Then they stripped down while one of them held me and then one of them hit me with something and I passed out. I woke up in the ambulance in more pain then I was in before I passed out."

The story almost brought me to tears.

"I should have got there sooner."

"At least you got there and got us both out." She then held my hand. "We all get hurt, the best thing we can do is never give up, and you should know that more then anybody."

She was right about that. Almost everyone apart of the NYPD knew my story and all the hell I've gone through over the past few years. She fell asleep and I left. Bravura said I had to go back to the hotel to search for any sign of Gognitti being there. They sent backup on all sides of the building, that way if there was any trouble or anyone tried to escape they would be there.

I walked in and I was everything but nervous. What happened earlier had left me angry and determined to find Gognitti. I went to Lupino's old room to check for any evidence on Gotnitti's whereabouts. The room for the most part was cleared except the closet of the room. It was the right spot to find the evidence I needed. The closest was full of letters sent to Niagara from Gognitti. Most of the letters were ridiculous but one caught my eye.

"Franky, we've found Payne. The idiot has partnered up with that assassin Mona Sax. Vlad and I have got to get Payne seperated from her so we can finish the job, for now we need you to stay at the hotel, cops are getting too suspicious about the place and its got both of us worried. We managed to lure most of the cops away from the hotel by detouring them to the Ragna Rock Club. This job is not over, I will keep you notified on our progress."

The letter was dated only a few months ago. But it was great evidence; it means that Gognitti was really working for Vlad all along. The only thing it didn't help me with was actually finding Gognitti. I went back to the station to tell Bravura of our progress and I was welcomed with news that shocked me.

"Payne, we found Sax. She was trying to flee the city."  
"Can I see her?"

"She's in interrogations now, I put you on the list to interrogate her. Pennington is in there now, you can enter when he is done."

I walked downstairs to the interrogations room, which was right next door to the cells. When I walked up to the window, there she was. Mona had an evil look on her face and was not answering any of Pennington's questions. Pennington kept a nice attitude with Mona and didn't lose his temper even though she was not answering. He came out to greet me.

"Good evening Payne."

"Good evening"

"Maybe you can get her to answer because she doesn't appear to be listening to me."

"I'll try"

I hesitated to walk in; I didn't know how Mona was going to react when she saw me. I finally walked in and that evil grin on her face turned into a beautiful smile.

"Max!!" she went to hug me but I stopped her.

"Don't hug me here." I said

"Right, sorry"

"That's ok, Mona we need to know why you're doing this."  
"It's a long story"

"But we have to know."

"It's Gognitti, he's in New Jersey."

"How do you know this?"

"I've known for quite some time now."

"Why didn't you tell me?"  
"Because I wanted to kill him myself, you got yours when you killed Vlad but I want Gognitti."

For once I saw the look on Mona's face turn completely angry and psychotic. She was obviously determined to get Gognitti but the evidence she gave me told us where Gognitti was, Jersey might have been a big city but we would find him. Gognitti had fled the city hoping that we wouldn't find him but pretty soon he was going to be caught in a corner with no place else to run.

**Chapter 3: Getting In The Way**

Mona was sent back to her cell and I went back up to Bravura's office to discuss how we were going to find Gognitti.

"We don't have any idea where in Jersey Gognitti is hiding in, so this isn't going to be easy." He said

"What about..." BAMM!!

A sound of an explosion roared through the building. Every officer upstairs ran down to the cellblock to see what in the hell was going on. We got the cellblock and it was covered in smoke.

"What happened Sergeant Henry?" Bravura asked

"It came from cell block 8, Mona Sax."

We looked in the cell and saw a huge whole in the wall and Mona missing. The color in Bravura's face was completely gone, this was the first time that someone had ever done something of this caliber at our station. I was worried what Bravura might say.

"She couldn't have gotten far. Get into you vehicles because I want her apprehended and I want her apprehended NOW!!"

His voice echoed through the station and we all headed out. I got into my car and speeded out. Everyone went into the city, but I knew exactly where Mona was going. The funhouse was not so far away from the station, made me wonder why no one else wanted to go there. There was something Mona was hiding from me that she didn't want to tell me and I was going to get her to tell me, no matter what it took.

I drove up to the burnt heap that was the funhouse. It felt kind of strange; this was the same place that Mona actually saved me in. The place was burning and she passed all that just to save me. But she was a different, she was someone who just wanted revenge and nothing else. However, I didn't know what the revenge was over, what made her hate Gognitti so much. I thought no one had a hate for Gognitti as much as I did, but the way Mona was acting proved me dead wrong.

We had set up lights in the funhouse just in case we ever had to investigate again. Mona had taken the liberty on turning them on. I walked as slow as possible; I kept feeling as if I was unwelcome in this place. The electronics system in the funhouse was badly damaged due to the fire and a lot of the things in the funhouse had a tendency to turn on and off on occasions.

It took me a couple minutes to get to her room. The door was already opened; I walked in without thinking twice. I probably should have. The door closed behind, I turned around and there she was.

"Why did you follow me here?" She asked, she walked around me with taking her eyes off of me.

"Tell me the whole story. Where is Gognitti and why do you want him dead so badly?"

"Gognitti is in Jersey but only I know exactly where. I want Gognitti dead because I need to get even with him for something he did to me a long time ago. That's all you need to know." When she said that she pointed a gone at my head.

"Mona?"

"You're a nice guy Max but I can't let you get in my way this time. You'll thank me later." After that she shot at me, I ducked behind a wall to avoid and by the time I got up she was gone. I ran out the door to see if I could catch her but she was gone.

"MONA!!" I screamed her name hoping she would answer but I was kidding myself on that one. I was trying to figure why Mona would say, "you'll thank me later". I don't know what she had against Gognitti or anything about their past but something told that Mona shouldn't have went alone, I should have gone with her.

I drove back to the station; we had a bunch of construction workers trying to repair the hole in our cell wall. I decided to be dead honest with Bravura and tell him what happened. He surprisingly wasn't mad at me but he told me I would be in charge of both cases since they were both connected. We had to start right away. There wasn't any evidence to help us find Gognitti or Mona but we all knew they were in New Jersey. We went around the streets doing the classic "Have you seen this person" routine because there wasn't any other option. Surprisingly in a matter of hours we finally approached a person who had seen Gognitti.

"Yea, that guy hangs out at the nightclub downtown."

"What's the name of the place?"

"The Garage Club, I use to work there, it's on the corner of Central and 2nd."  
"Thank you"

"No problem officer."

Downtown was quite a long way from where we were. We got into our cars, turned the sirens on and speeded all the way over there. My mind was filled with thoughts of Mona and I could shake them. I feared that something bad was going to happen to her but I had to try and ignore them. We had to find Gognitti and her as soon as possible and hopefully the Garage Club would lead us to them both.

We had gotten to the Garage Club around Ten O' Clock at night, since it was a Monday there wasn't that many people there. I walked in alone, if Gognitti was in there, seeing a bunch of cops walking in would scare him. He wouldn't even notice one person walking, or at least I hope he wouldn't. Unfortunately, Gognitti wasn't in the bar, the only people in the bar were a couple and a bar tender. The bar wasn't that fancy, in fact it fit its name, nothing but a bar, a few tables, and a little karaoke stage that looked like it hadn't been used in years. I walked up the bar tender. The bartender had a curious look on his face; the fact that he had kept his eye on me since I walked in made me feel uncomfortable.

"What can I get for you my friend?" He asked.

"Good Evening, I'm Detective Payne, I was wondering if this man has been your bar as of late?"

He didn't hesitate to answer. "Yeah, this is Vinnie. He comes in here every night for a couple of shots of whiskey."

"Any clue where I might find him."

"He usually shows up tonight around midnight. I think he's a little strange, never really talks to anyone, just sits by himself at the same table every night."

"Do you have any clue where he lives?"  
"He always comes out of the pharmacy across the street. I don't know whether he lives in one of the apartments above the place or works there, not sure."

"Thanks for your help."

I went back outside to tell everyone what I had found out. If Gognitti were in that building, it wouldn't be hard finding him. I had officers stationed on every corner of the building and I went up alone. I had a score to settle with Gognitti and there was no way he was escaping me this time. I went up to the owner's office to see if he knew Gognitti. I showed him a picture.

"Yeah" He said. "I recognize him alright but he goes by the name Vincent Brown. He lives in apartment 15, it's on the very top floor."

I didn't hesitate; I ran straight up the stairs and didn't stop. This was not a great building for the silent approach, every stepped creaked and the building echoed like there was no tomorrow. But it didn't matter; every exit Gognitti could have escaped from was blocked off. I reached the top floor and saw apartment 15. There was no way I was holding back. I kicked down the door with all my might.

"GOTNITTI!!" I shouted, but as soon as I walked through the door a gun pointed at my head.

"I've been waiting a long time to do this Payne, you have no idea." I turned around to see a thinner and sadder looking Vinnie Gognitti. He looked like he had eaten weeks.

"Gognitti, your just going to jail, that's all, you'll die if you stay out here."

"Oh listen to yourself, you kicked down my door ready to kill me, but now that you see what's become of me you want to offer sympathy."

I looked over on the desk to see the dreaded Valkyr drug. Just like Lupino, Vinnie had gone mad.

"Look Vincent, we can help you." I said. I tried my best to get him to calm down and put down the gun. "We can help you clean up your act and live a normal life."

"Shut up Payne, you don't know what's it's like. To trust someone and have her betray you."

"Her?"

"She betrayed me!!" Vinnie kept repeating it and every time he said it he would take to steps backwards toward the window.

"Vincent, don't do it, just come with me and we can help."

"Goodbye Payne, if you really want to save me, you would kill her." He took one final step backwards and went out the window and fell all the way to his death. I just stood in shock of what had happened. I finally gathered myself together and walked back downstairs.

Pennington was outside looking just as shocked as I was.

"I can't believe this. What happened?"  
"He was stoned on that Valkyr drug."

"I thought we got rid of that."

"So did I."

"Well we're going to take the body back to morgue, you coming back to the station?"

"No, I just want to go home, I'm tired."

"Alright, I'll tell Bravura what happened. You going to be all right Max."

"Yea. Tell everyone they did a good job."

"I will. Goodnight Payne."  
"Goodnight."

I watched all the cop cars take off, and the S.W.A.T. team left as well. But when the S.W.A.T. truck moved, standing behind it was Mona. She saw me and took off into the alleyway, I ran after her.

"MONA!!

Mona ran as fast as she could to get away from me, actually throwing things in my way to cut me off. We ran for what seemed like forever until Mona found a latter to climb onto and I followed. There was no place else for her to run, unless she wanted to jump like Gognitti.

"You're the person Gotnitti's talking about aren't you?"

"Why couldn't you stay out of the way like I said? This was none of your business."

"What is it you hold against Gognitti anyway?"

"He betrayed me."

She said the same thing Gognitti said but like Gognitti I didn't know what it meant.

"He betrayed you?"

"He left me. He was my husband." She said as I stood in shock of what I was hearing. "He wanted to go down one path, I went down another. I became a hired assassin while he was busy running his stupid mob."

"You gave him the Valkyr drug didn't you?" I asked

"I wanted to shut him up, what better way then to just screw him up completely." She said as the tears in her eyes began to show. "Him falling out the window was just the icing on the cake."

As I stood in shock, Mona's emotions looked like they were eating her alive as she stood there and stared at me in tears. I didn't know whether she really intended this to happen or deep down she wishes she never wanted it to happen. Mona's eyes finally left mine and she turned around to look out at the city.

"I don't feel guilt for anything I do Max." She said. "You should know that better then anyone. I don't feel guilty for Vinnie's death. I don't feel anything."

"I can help you." I said.

"You won't get the chance." She said, Mona pointed her gun at me and fired. The bullet grazed my head but the force knocked me down, and everything went black.

**Chapter 4: The Nightmare**

In my dream the world disjointed. I didn't really know where I was but had the strangest feeling of Deja Vu. The room looked familiar but I still couldn't make it out. I walked through the room to see what was in it. I barely went two steps and the phone started ringing on the desk. I picked it up, "Is this the Payne residence." I knew that saying better then anyone that was the point when my real nightmare started. The room was dark, only lit by the fireplace in the corner.

I walked closer to the fireplace and could see a flight of stairs next to it. I walked up what seemed to be a staircase leading to nowhere. I walked a few steps and all of sudden light filled the room. Again I had another burst of deja vu; I knew I had seen this before. Then all of sudden I heard screaming that almost burst my ears coming from a room. "NO PLEASE NO!! MAX HELP!!" And a baby's cry filled the room. I ran to the bedroom door and burst the door opened. However, when I opened it the screaming stopped and the baby laid nice and comfortable in deep sleep. I walked into the bedroom and saw my darling wife on the bed. I was baffled.

"Michelle?"  
"Max, I was wondering when you would get home."

"But I had heard screaming."

"There was no screaming." She said. Then all of a sudden her expression changed and she looked angry. "Except for my screams for you, but you don't choose to remember me do you, it's all about Mona. You must kill her Max. Kill her"

She kept repeating it and then all of a sudden Vinnie Gognitti burst through the corner of the room repeating the same thing. Nicole Horn, the woman responsible for my wife's death stood in the corner repeating. All of the voices were like a train getting closer, just getting louder and louder and then I woke up.

I woke up in what appeared to be Vinnie's apartment. I wasn't tied or anything but I got up with a huge headache. I walked out expecting to see Mona but she had disappeared, I left the building quietly but the nightmare had me wondering on what my life had become. Nothing was right after my wife's death and even though I killed Nicole Horn, Vlad and Gognitti, there was still a piece of the puzzle yet to be finished and that was Mona. I didn't want to kill because I was above that.

But I needed her arrested but finding her was going to be tougher then ever. Now I had no evidence on where and how to find her. Mona was full of nothing but mind games to try and lure me away but enough was enough. I was sick and tired of falling short of my goal and wanted Mona to figure that out. Mona's heart was still there but the blackness of her past had finally covered it and she was someone else.

The sky was becoming cloudy, much like my life. Everything had taken a turn for the worse. Gognitti was gone, I had no evidence, and Mona had gone missing again. Everyone always tries to rise to the occasions when the chips are down but for me just surviving is good enough. Mona could have killed me on two separate occasions but she was just trying distance herself from me without hurting me. I didn't want to hurt her but something told me that I had no choice this time.

I went back to my apartment to get some rest. My stress level was at a record high but so was my exhaustion. I had not slept in a while. I figured I could tell Bravura what had happened in the morning. I went to bed and dosed off very quickly.

I had a dream that night. I was in a hallway with no doors or windows. At the end of the hall there was a person that was staring at me. I ran closer but the end just never seemed to get any closer. But all of a sudden it seemed like I was actually getting closer but things got worse. Things started blocking my way. Things began falling from the sky trying to stop me in my path. When I finally reached the end, I went to look at the person and when I tried I woke up.

There was a knock at my door when I woke up. I looked at the clock and it was morning. I was a little disappointed that I didn't see the persons face but I figured that it was just a dream and let it go. I slowly got out of bed to answer the door.

"Who is it?" I asked

"It's Chief Bravura!" He answered and I quickly answered the door. "Hello Payne, sorry to barge in on you at this time but there was break-in today."

"Why does it concern me? There are break-ins every day."

"It was in your old house."

That woke me up right away. I went with Bravura to Jersey to look at my house. I had never sold the house since I left it. It was in my name but I only kept just in case I needed to get away from the city for a while. But after I saw my dead wife and baby there, I never found the urge to leave the city and hated the sight of the house.

It took us a good hour to leave the city and another half hour to get to my house. There were cop cars and other detectives surrounding the house but Bravura made sure everyone was out because I had requested to be alone in the house. When I first walked in the house, I had been struck by déjà vu. I finally remembered the dream I had about the house, my wife and all my enemies telling me to kill Mona. My emotions began to circle but I tried to control them as best as I could. I walked up to the fireplace, which was covered with dust but on the floor laid a broken picture of Michelle and me. Judging by the handprints on the picture, the person who broke in didn't like the picture. Besides that the downstairs was untouched. But the upstairs was a different matter. Everything was torn to pieces. Pictures on the wall of my family were shattered. And my bedroom was covered with broken glass.

However my closet was worse. I had kept all the files of my old cases in this closet, when Alex and I were the top cops on the force. But there was a file missing, the Valkyr file was gone. I knew then that somehow Mona had broken into my house. This would explain all of the broken pictures. I don't know how Mona found the place; I had never mentioned it and hadn't been in the house since my wife's death. Someone had tipped her but the only problem was that I didn't know who it was.

All the possible suspects had been killed. Overall, I had no evidence and no clues. This was not an easy case by any means. Bravura expressed concerns about me. The encounters with Mona and Gognitti had left me scarred and I didn't want to go through this case anymore but I had to tough it out as best as I could. Bravura offered me 3 weeks paid vacation after the case was over and I eagerly accepted.

I sat at my desk going over the file that we had for Mona, it had just been updated today and I wanted to see if there was anything on the file that would give me a clue. I had only seen Mona's file once and that was to pull out a mug shot of her but I never actually read the file. The file had Detective Winterson's signature on it since Mona was originally her case. The file did say Mona was married but we didn't know who that was at the time. I found it kind of funny that it was Gognitti all along.

The file didn't have anything that would help me with the case. I was tired and beat up from the case. Pennington kept telling me to go and get some rest but I couldn't sleep and didn't want to sleep. I wasn't going to sleep until I found Mona and nobody was going to change my decision.

Finally I told Pennington I was going home, I lied. I went back to Jersey to do more searching around Gotnitti's apartment. It took me a few hours to get the apartment, but I didn't care. I was getting tired of being caught at the dead end of the maze; I wanted a way out. For some reason the busy city seemed empty to me, I wasn't even paying attention to the cars that passed me by on the road or the people walking the streets. I just didn't care anymore.

I got to Gognitti's apartment building and walked right in. The owner recognized me and gave me a key. I hesitated to open the door but I was left with very little choice. Everything was the way we had left it. I searched the apartment from top to bottom and gathered a bunch of letters that Gognitti had received. Only one letter caught my eye and it was a letter from Alfred Woden. The letter had been sent only a couple days before Woden's unfortunate death.

"Dear Vincent,

I am tired of all of this. Tell your partner Vlad that I want out of our deal. I'm sick of seeing innocent bodies put to death because of you two. I will give you all the money you need to settle your debts just leave those people alone."

Woden had actually shown a conscious. Either Gognitti didn't him the message or Vladimir denied Woden's offer. Vlad already had all the money in the world so Woden's money didn't matter at all.

BAMM!!

After I had read the letter there was a loud gunshot downstairs. I ran out of the apartment to see the problem and I could hear only one voice.

"Get Payne, I want him alive!"

They had a long way to go, I started running upstairs as fast as I could. I got my cell phone out and called the station.

"NYPD Emergency Officer Kim speaking."  
"Kim its Payne, I need back up, I'm at Gotnitti's apartment building."

"You got it Payne, hold tight, help is on the way."

I had ran so far that I was on top of the building, where there was nowhere to go but down. I had pinned myself in a corner. I grabbed my gun and was ready to shoot anything that walked through that door. Kim had done me a favor and sent the emergency helicopter to get me. I could already hear the helicopter. I barred the door as best I could with a piece of would that was on the roof while the helicopter tried to land. I could see that they were trying to break through the door. Finally the helicopter landed and I jumped in right when they had broken through the door. They started shooting at the helicopter but we fired back with our machine gun to scare them back inside while we took off.

"Are you all right Payne!" one of the officers asked.

"I'm fine, thank you."

"Hey, it's our job."

Woden's letter had presented me with a new question, what was Woden's role with Gognitti and Vlad. He had left a hint of being associated with Vlad when we were at his mansion but I would have never suspected a deal between the two. Vlad had a lot of money to do pretty much what he wanted. What was it that he wanted from Woden that was so important?

Pennington and I did everything we could to find any recent file that concerned Alfred Woden. Out of over one hundred files only one caught our eyes. Apparently, Woden had a son named John, who was set to get his money and his business when he passed. With Woden gone, I figured it was time to pay this John a visit. He might not be able to answer most of my questions but anything was worth a shot at this point. I was getting sick of coming up short on this case.

Pennington opted to come with me so he could be there if there was danger. According Woden's file, John was living in a snooty mansion on Ellis Island. While we were in the car Pennington looked worried. I finally asked him what was wrong.

"That name John Woden. I've heard it before. Log-on to my laptop and see if you find any file on him in the rest of the country."

I got on the laptop and checked. His name actually appeared from San Francisco for grand theft auto and drug paraphernalia. It wasn't anything new for this city, so we didn't think twice about it.

It took us two hours to get to his house. Sadly it was dark by the time we got there. The house was huge, two stories high with at least twenty rooms in it. Ellis Island was always known for being the home of New York's wealthiest and John Woden was no exception. I saw that there was a speaker to speak into near the gate of the house. However, when we walked up to it the gate opened. We got back into the to drive up. A butler came to greet us.

"Max Payne and Steve Pennington I presume?" He said in a thick British accent.

"Yes" I answered.

"Chief Bravura notified us about your visit."

"Mr. Woden knows the chief."

"Personally no, the number to this house is connected to the police department."

"I see."

He brought us into the house. The house looked even bigger on the inside with a gigantic with a huge staircase when you entered. John Woden himself came to greet us. "Max Payne, I've always been dying to meet you. My father always spoke very highly of you."

"That's good to know." I said.

"We're here to ask some questions on a case that concerns your father." Pennington said in very business-like tone.

"Very well, why don't we go to my office and discuss it there. Tea gentlemen?"

"No" both Pennington and I answered simultaneously

We followed him up the staircase was to the right of it.

"Please sit down gentlemen. Now this case on my father, what is it about?"

"We have evidence that your father made some kind of deal with two known criminals, Vincent Gognitti and Vladimir Lem. Are you familiar with those names?" I asked

"Yes, Vladimir I know very well, my father helped rebuild the Ragna Rock Club, which he was going to turn into a restaurant."  
"Vladimir has the money to handle that himself, why did your father take part in it?" I asked

"My father saw as a great investment opportunity and figured it was worth a chance."

"Any other deals that you know of?"

But right as I said that, I could see several cars pulling up to the driveway. Now I felt uncomfortable, Pennington looked where I was looking and tried not to panic.

"Expecting company Mr. Woden?" I asked with anger.

"Yes, for you. Like I said, I've been dying meet you, dying to watch you die"

"I didn't do anything to you."

"Yes you did, you got involved. I hate people that get involved in my business. Goodbye Mr. Payne, maybe I'll see you later...in another life."

We ran out of the office to find a way out but it was too late, they were already breaking through the door. In a matter of second there were thousands of bullets being shot at us. I tried to find somewhere to hide.

"Max!" Pennington said. "Take my gun"

"I've got mine."

"Just take it." BAM! Right when he threw it they shot him. It was like he knew it was coming.

It was a big house, so I needed to find a way to use that to my advantage. With handguns and me facing off against multiple men with machine guns, I didn't stand a chance. I only needed to find a way out and that was it. I could hear the footsteps coming up the stairs; I was running out of time.

I ran down the nearest hall, (BAMM!!) but didn't get very far, a crowbar nailed me in the face and I fell to the ground. I was a little dizzy but wasn't hurt, after all the gunshots I had taken over the years I didn't feel much pain anymore. The person who hit came out and it was John Woden. I took a guess that he had gone through a passage in the house.

"Mr. Payne, always trying to slip through the fingers of your enemies, too bad you couldn't slip through mine."

"Want us to kill him sir." One of his men said.

"No I will take care of him." He said in a sadistic voice. "You let my father die and now I get to see you suffer the same fate."

"There was nothing I could do, it happened too fast." I said trying to defend myself.

"If only I could believe that. My father did everything to try and help you through your problems. Now you get to join your dead wife and child in hell where you all belong."

He pointed the gun at me. I closed my eyes to accept the bullet. I heard a gunshot but it wasn't towards me. I opened my eyes to see Woden staring at me with wide eyes and then he fell. All of his men turned to the window where the bullet had come from, we all looked to see Mona standing at the rooftop of the house next door.

"GET HER!!" One of Woden's men said and they all took off completely forgetting about me. Mona had saved me...again.

**Chapter 5: What Side Are You On**

I couldn't believe it. First Mona tried to kill me so I would be out of her way and now she saved me from death. It just didn't make sense to me, no matter how many times I tried to add it up.

All of Woden's men had fled to go and find Mona while I walked quietly out of the house and jumped back in my car. I started the car and took off as fast as I could. I tried to get as far away from the house as I possibly could. I barely got a mile when I heard her voice.

"You going to thank me Max?" I jumped to see Mona hiding in the backseat. I don't how she got there but there were a lot of things Mona did that were pretty unexplainable.

"What are doing here?" I asked

"I'm here to help you, incase you haven't noticed." She said very sarcastically.

"I don't need your help."

"Oh, like didn't need my help back there. When are you going to face it Max, you are stuck at a dead end. You have no choice but to accept my help."

"Oh and what plan could you possibly have? I have a partner who is still in the hospital from being abused. I have a partner dead in Woden's mansion. I'm sick of following other people's orders if its just going to get others hurt or killed. This is my case and I don't need help!!"

"Pull over here." She said as if she wasn't even listening. I pulled over to the side of the road. She started to get out. "Follow me." She said looking at me with a slight grin. I felt uneasy but I couldn't help myself. I got out of the car and followed Mona.

"Where are we going?" I asked

"You'll see soon enough. Worried?"

"No" I lied, this case had already put me through hell and I didn't feel like going further into the flames. The road we walked down just seemed to get darker and darker. I had no clue where this road lead to. Was there hell on the other side waiting for me? I didn't know.

"Here we are." she said.

I looked around and my vision was starting to adjust to the night. I saw a cemetery and in front of me was my wife and daughters tombstone. I fell to my knees. I had sworn not to ever return to this sight ever again after their deaths. The memories brought too much pain.

"Why did you bring me here?" I asked, with tears beginning to run down my face.

"To help you face your fears." She said. "Max, when I met you, you were a man without fear and were willing to pay any price to avenge the deaths of your loved ones. After that you began to worry about your actions, you were scared that you would disappoint your dead wife, afraid that you failed her. Max, that was then, this is now." I didn't interrupt. I just listened. "You have to get rid of your fears or else you are going to be the one shot down next."

The words entered my ears with power and I took them in. I couldn't disagree with Mona for one second. I could have died several times on this case because of my fear and my stress. If I didn't let that go, another one of my partners or worse, me, would fall to the ground.

"Did you hear that?" Mona whispered

"What?"

"Come on"

She grabbed my arm and we began running. Barely after we had started gunfire filled the air. We ran straight out of the cemetery and headed for my car. (BAMM!!) I saw my car explode right in front of my eyes but we didn't have time to think about it, we immediately started running again. The alleys were dark; I could barely make out where we were going. I immediately went for my gun and began shooting back. The gunfire made the two men following us duck for cover.

Mona pulled at my arm. "In here." She led me into what looked like an old warehouse. From the looks of the place it hadn't been in use in years. All of the windows were smashed to pieces and were left in pieces that covered almost the entire floor. We had to find someplace to hide.

"Smoke them." We heard from outside and the next thing we new several smoke bombs filled with sleeping gas came flying in from all directions.

"Max" Mona said. I ran over to see that Mona had found a door that led to the sewer below. She grabbed my arm and I climb down. I looked up to see if Mona followed but the door closed above me.

"Mona?"

"Run Max! I'll take care of this."

"I'm not leaving you here."

"Run!"

But the gas proved to be too much for Mona, she began to fade. I was about to climb up to get her when I heard all of the men come into the warehouse.

"Find Payne!!" I heard from a voice that sounded way too familiar, the voice of Vinnie Gognitti.

"He's nowhere in sight boss." One of his men said. "What about her?"

"Take her, she is our ultimate bait to lure Payne in."

I could see one of Gotnitti's men carrying Mona over his shoulder.

I waited for what seemed like forever for all of Gotnitti's men to leave and then I climbed out of the sewer. Gognitti had fooled everyone, including Mona. I should have seen it coming knowing the type of person Gognitti was. Gognitti would do anything to have me begging for mercy. The first time we had actually met face to face I shot him in the stomach and left him bleeding in an alleyway. He didn't forgive or forget and neither did I. He expected me to fall into his little trap but he didn't suspect that I actually heard his conversation. I didn't know where Gognitti was going but that didn't mean that I couldn't find out.

Gognitti was the king of giving away his own location, his extremely loud voice always managed to get him into trouble. The NYPD kind of had a clue on locations that Gognitti might hide in. There weren't guarantees that he would actually be in any of them but it was better then having nothing to go on at all.

I went back to the station to get the list of places that Gognitti might be hiding out in. In the background I could hear whispers of worried officers that were afraid that I might be in over my head on the whole case. Bravura had given me his word that if I needed backup he would send it right away but I was determined on doing it on my own with no help. Bravura agreed with the rest of the NYPD that I was going to get myself killed on this case but after taking over a 1000 bullet over the past few years and managing to live, I had gone numb to other peoples cries and pleas.

The weather outside was growing scary as if it was connected to my mind. The dark clouds hovered over the city like a shell, no sign of sun or daylight, just darkness. I jumped into my car and drove off without thinking twice. The first few stops were complete duds, two hotels that had been torn down because of Gognitti. The third stop led me straight back to Gotnitti's apartment building. I walked straight in.

The building looked different, the pharmacy had been torn to shreds. Papers and broken glass, papers, and shelves littered the floor. I heard a rustling upstairs and immediately got out my gun. I quietly headed up the stairs. The noise came from Vinnies apartment. The door had been left wide open. I peaked in and saw someone standing next to the bed in the room.

"FREEZE, NYPD!!" I screamed. And the person turned around and turned out to be Stacy Myers.

"Max, do you mind taking your gun off of me."

"Sorry. What are you doing here?"

"Bravura sent me, figured you could use the help."

"Bravura doesn't need to send help."

"You can resist all you want but in the end you're going to be happy that is someone to help you out."

"Any evidence found?" I tried to switch the conversation because I didn't want to get into an argument that I knew I would lose. She smiled because she knew it as well.

"Nothing, the place was cleaned out."

"By NYPD?"

"No, Bravura ordered S.W.A.T. and any NYPD to leave it alone. Now I'm worried."

"Gognitti?"

"Exactly, he knew what he was doing and he had his old gang waiting until he was ready to make his move."

"But now we have nothing else to ride on for this case."

"Yes we do. Come with me back to the station."

We walked back down the stairs and headed back to the station. The drive had me curious on what evidence might have been left and that I had somehow missed. Stacy stayed quiet for most of the trip and I remained silent as well. But I couldn't stay quiet for long.

"Will this evidence help us at all?" I asked

"It should." She stared at me. "So what's up with you and Mona?"

"Nothing."

"Oh come on Max, you can't hide your feelings for her. Bravura saw it way before anyone else did. You wouldn't have gone through all this hell if you didn't have feelings for her."

"I don't love her."

"I didn't say that...but are you?"

From that moment until the end of the trip, I remained quiet. I did love Mona and for the past couple of years I tried to deny it. I once kissed her and that picture still sat in my memory. There are something's that can be erased so easily but some that sit in your mind for the rest of your life, questions that never get fully answered until the end. Even after she appeared to be dead in Woden's mansion, I still denied that love. It became clearer.

We arrived at the station and headed up to the main office. I went to Stacy's desk to see what it was she had to show me.

"Look at this file." She said with confidence in her voice. The file was Alfred Woden's will. There were three anonymous names on the will all of which were receiving twenty-five percent of Woden's fortune. Of course John Woden's name was on the will for other twenty-five percent but the three anonymous names puzzled me.

"Who are the three unknowns?" I asked

"I talked to the lawyer today, one was his nephew Craig Woden. Craig didn't want his name on the will because of jealously from other family members. The other two were surprisingly Gognitti and Vlad."

"Wait a minute. Why would either of them be on Woden's will?"

"That was part of the deal they finalized with each other. However, the deal couldn't be reversed due to Woden's death, and with Vlad dead as well all of that money goes to Gognitti."

"Why not his nephew?"

"I'm guessing Woden figured Craig wouldn't even find out about the two, he didn't want to create suspicion among the family."

"And that's why their names weren't read in front of the family. How much money did Gognitti receive?"

"Gognitti received over ten billion dollars."

A man like Gognitti could do so much with that amount of money. We had to act fast before Gognitti did something extreme with it. With Woden's son out of the picture there was no telling what Gognitti would do. Gognitti, Woden, and Vlad thought they would have me six feet under by now but with two out of the three dead, the most dangerous one still was at large and had enough money to buy a whole army to compete against the N.Y.P.D. I wasn't afraid but thousands of other police officers might say different. Learning all this about Gognitti told me that I couldn't do this case alone. I needed help and I that Bravura and the rest of the N.Y.P.D were on my side.

"Our next move is up to you Max." Stacy said.

"We need to gather as much of the N.Y.P.D as we can, this is going to be big."

"I agree."

Bravura to my surprise was reluctant about the idea.

"Payne, I can't put that many officers at risk."

"We have no choice, Alfred Woden and his son had unlimited amount of men working for them and now with the death of both of them, they are now working for Gognitti and knowing Gognitti he is going to add others to his cause."

Bravura thought about for a couple of minutes. Minutes felt like hours to me.

"All right, I'll allow. PAYNE! Good luck...for all our sakes." He said with a very uncertain look on his face. "I'll contact other stations to add to our army. But I warn you now Payne, this is the last time i'm helping you. I took 3 bullets to the stomach and arms in that damn hospital because of you last time. I'm fed up with this. But you have my word for this last time. Lets hope it ends this time."

"Thank You."

With Bravura's word to help me, now all we need to find out was were Gognitti was hiding. We knew he wasn't heading to the Woden manner because cops were stationed outside. We brought in the owner of Gognitti's apartment building to see if he had chance to hear anything Gognitti might have said.

"He never said anything to me in person and to be quite honest we hardly ever talked period. The only thing I did was collect his rent every month." He said. "But detective, I figured you might want this when you called." He handed me a peace of paper. It was a list of Gognitti's phone calls.

"Thank You."

"No problem detective."

Stacy and I looked at the list with care. The list was longer then most police reports. However, the calls were to only two people for the most part, Woden and Vlad. However, even though we saw those to for the most part we still checked the list with care to make sure there wasn't anyone else. Vlad and Woden made sure that the numbers or locations changed with each call to keep them from being found, however we were a little stunned that their names appeared on the list, as if they wanted us to know. We spent almost an hour looking over the list and then finally found something.

"It looks like your friend Mona called Vlad last week." Stacy said.

"If only we had recording of that conversation." I said.

"Exactly what I was thinking. If only it was possible."

"Any idea where the call came from."

"Judging by the number, it came from a payphone." She said. "If I can trace the number, it can tell us where the payphone was." She looked back at me. "I see if i can trace the number. You go home, get some sleep, it looks like you haven't slept in days."

She was right. I hadn't slept in days. Coffee and food was the only thing keeping me awake. I didn't drive home, so I set up a place in my office to sleep. Because of the lack of sleep I dosed off fast.

"Max!!" Every voice that talks to you when you're asleep seems like it's so far away. You don't know whether it's dream or not. "MAX!!" The voice cleared and I knew I awake. "Max". It was Stacy. "Come on, I found it."

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Six A.M." she answered. "I actually found it a couple hours ago, but Bravura thought you should get some sleep."

She drove us to place where Mona had made her phone call. The drive was long, all the way across town. The directions led us to an old apartment building, the building was still up and running judging by the lights inside but the place was wreck. We walked in, we saw a door marked owner when we walked in a knocked. An old man answered the door.

"Can I help you folks?"

"Yes, I'm detective Payne of the N.Y.P.D, this is my partner Detective Myers. Just need to ask a few questions."

"What about?"

"Is this person one your tenants?" I showed him the mug shot of Mona.

"Yes, she lives on the third floor, apartment 15."

"Thank You."

We walked up to apartment 15. The door was unlocked. We took out our guns. We walked in and right when we walked in the phone."

"Hello."

"Oh, hey Payne." Gognitti spoke in his high-pitched voice. "I'd duck if I were you."

And right when he said that, gunfire flooded the apartment room like bees from a beehive. Stacy ducked behind the bed. The gunfire finally stopped after at least a minute worth of shooting. The phone was surprisingly still intact.

"Jesus Payne!! Why won't you die?" Gognitti screamed on the other end. "Why would you put so much on the line for one stupid bitch? I warn you now Payne, stay out of this. That is your one and only warning."

Gognitti hung up and Stacy got up to see where the sniper could have shot. She couldn't find anything. I got up and headed straight out.

"Max!" Stacy yelled. I walked down the building stairs and headed back to the car. I waited for Stacy to get in and then I took off.

"Max where are we going?"

"You'll see."

She stared at me like I was insane. But I felt that I was insane, insane that I didn't check this particular place first.

"I have a hunch on where Gognitti might be."

"Where?"

"His old apartment building."

"But that's boarded up due to all the explosives that went off in there."

"That won't stop him."

When we had finally arrived, memories about my first visit to the building shot through my head. This was also the place where I first saw Vlad for the first. This was the only place I could picture Gognitti at. I was one of the only officers who knew where the place was. There was no guarantee that Gognitti would actually be there but I had no other lead.

During the whole drive I felt like a fool. I never would have guessed that Gognitti and Vlad were working together the whole time. Especially when Gognitti's men were at war with Vlad's men. Something told me that their men didn't know, that way it looked real and would lure Mona and me into a trap. Gognitti was the last piece of the puzzle and with him gone; hopefully this nightmare would be over once and for all.

**Chapter 6: Max's Choice**

Gognitti's old apartment building had been condemned due to our little firefight. All of this made me wish that I had killed Gognitti but at the time I was above that. I left him bleeding in an alley. I shouldn't have let him live. The night that I saw Vinnie in the baseball batboy costume and listening to him ramble about a bomb in the costume made me feel gullible but I was so concerned about getting back at Vlad that I wasn't paying attention to my own instincts.

We finally arrived at the building. There was no lights or any sort of power in the building. I wasn't going to wait, so I walked right in. Stacy slowly followed with a very concerned look on her face.

The building had not been repaired at all since my last visit and was in terrible condition. The wholes in the above floors showed how much damage was done to the place and Stacy looked more frightened then ever. I wasn't necessarily frightened but was worried that I shouldn't have brought Stacy with me, this didn't concern her at all.

BAM!!

A large object had fallen from the floor above us. The stairs to that floor had been dismantled. We needed to find a way up.

"Max!!" Stacy yelled. She had found a window and outside was the fire escape. We both climbed out the window and I lifted Stacy up to the fire escape after that I jumped up. Stacy peaked in to see if there was anyone in the room that lead to the fire escape.

"All clear." She said. I went first, just incase.

"It's Payne, kill him!!" We heard Gognitti scream. Two men came running out of the room across from the one we were in and began shooting like crazy. Stacy ducked into the kitchen. I looked around to see where they were. One was in the living room. I didn't hesitate; I jumped to the side and started shooting. After a couple of shots I finally got him. Stacy managed to get the second gunmen and we headed into the room that Gognitti had yelled from. But when we got in, there was nothing. It looked like Gognitti had gotten out through the window. Gognitti could only so far. We went back to the fire escape and went back down and went back down. A car passed as we were coming down. The window opened slightly to reveal someone holding out a gun.

"GET DOWN!" I yelled. Stacy ducked right as he began shooting. I got my gun out and fight back. He quickly took off. I could only guess that it was Gognitti in the car. We got back to the car and drove off. Stacy wanted to go back to the station. I was lukewarm about the idea. I saw where the car turned and was willing to see if I could find it but logic told me that it was pointless to even try.

When we got to the station Bravura wasn't in the best of moods.

"I'm sorry Payne, no other station is willing to take this case. We're pretty much on our own." Bravura said to my surprise. Most of N.Y.P.D was willing to put Gognitti behind bars. I didn't know why they wouldn't take the case.

"What now?" I asked.

"Our S.W.A.T team is willing to go with you, just tell us where."

That was the problem, I didn't know where. I told Bravura about the apartment building that Gognitti was hanging out in.

"Gognitti couldn't have gone too far from there." Bravura said. "There are too many policemen in that area for him to run far. I'll send our S.W.A.T team around that area. Payne? You and Myers head back to that building for evidence. You rushed Gognitti, so you know he had to leave something that might be useful."

We headed out. Four S.W.A.T cars followed us back to Gognitti's apartment building. When we got there only one stayed with us, the others went searching.

"You guys wait out here, will let you know if there is trouble." I told them.

"Yes sir!"

We headed up the fire escape to the floor where Gognitti had been hiding out. We walked in only to hear Gognitti screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Hurry up already, those fucking cops are already outside. We got to get out of here now!" He said. "MOTHER FUCKER! What is taking so long, grab it and lets go."

Gognitti walked out of the room to see Stacy and I waiting. "Freeze Gognitti, it's over." I said.

"You would think so wouldn't you?" Gognitti revealed a button in his hand. Going up the same way we did before didn't prove to be a good option. From the looks of it Gognitti had planted explosives. Gognitti jumped back in the room and pressed the button and before we could even chase him the floor beneath Stacy and me blew to pieces and we fell all the way back down to the first floor. The fall wasn't that bad, Stacy and I got right back up but the S.W.A.T hurried in.

"Are you all right?" One of the members asked.

"We're fine."

"All right men, get him!" He said and they all went up to Gognitti's floor. They managed to catch some of Gognitti's men who were still up there but Gognitti was long gone. I should have been happy that we finally caught some of Gognitti's men but I wasn't. I wanted Gognitti dead but something told that it was going to be impossible.

We headed back to the station to question his men to see what we got. Usually we questioned one by one but I wasn't in the mood. I had all three of them in one room.

"Where's Gognitti?" That was the only question I needed answers for. Most officers would beat around the bush and play it nice but I wasn't in that frame of mind.

"Listen officer, I'd tell you but to be quite honest none of us know where he really hides out. He just tells us to meet in that building but he drives there as well. We don't know where he is."

I didn't know whether to believe them or not. This case had already brought along more then I had bargained for. I wasn't too sure anymore. Bravura was beginning to lose his patience and it was with me. He wanted Gognitti but the fact that it had been several days was beginning to get to him. He promised me his word but something told me that it was a promise that he knew he would have to break. I didn't fear the worse anymore; in fact, I didn't even pay attention to it.

"In my office Payne." Bravura ordered. If he was going to say what I thought he was going to say, then the case as far as I was concerned was over. I went into Bravura's office. I tried to stay as calm as possible. "Listen Payne, I hate to do this and believe me I really do. I know I told you that I would stick by your side this whole but I'm afraid I can't. I can't risk losing so many officers against Gognitti's men. I've taken the risk before but after losing so many officers the last time I'm not willing to do it again. I'm giving you two choices Payne. Turn in your guns, your badge and just move. We will pay for it all. We will even find you another secure job. Or you can go at it alone, with no help, no backup, not even Myers will be with you."

"I'll go with the second option." Bravura looked surprised. He knew with me going alone I would be outnumbered greatly. But it wasn't like it hadn't happened before.

"Very well Payne. But I tell you this, after this case is over. You are no longer taking any cases. You will be placed at a desk for the rest of your career." He said. And it was only fair. After all, I wouldn't have to worry about getting shot at from desk.

Before I left the station, I went back into the interrogation room to see if I could get a different answer. When I entered the room, Officer Mason followed.

"I want to be left alone with these two." I said.

"Sorry Payne, Bravura's orders." He replied. Obviously Bravura felt that I couldn't be alone with any of Gognitti's men, mainly because my anger was taking over me. I needed to watch every step I took when I was around Bravura. It could cost me my job.

"I'm going to ask you one more time. Where is Gognitti?" I pulled out my gun. To make sure Mason didn't do anything I didn't point it at anyone. I just used it to intimidate them.

"Vodka, the old Ragna Rock club." One of them quickly said. I was a little surprised. Gognitti had usually trained to not fear anyone. I didn't buy it.

"How could he be there? That place was cleared out by us."

"That's why. He went there after the cops were done clearing the place." The other said trembling.

"If you're lying to me. The next two bullets in this gun are joining you in your grave." Bravura heard it all and looked at me very uneasily. I should have watched my words but with Gognitti filling my thoughts there was no room for other thoughts.

With Myers out of the case, I know longer had to worry about her wellbeing. It was just Gognitti and I. The odds weren't in my favor but they never were. With no backup I was going to have to play hide and seek with Gognitti's men. I could only hope that there were people around the area. That way if things got too violent, someone would call the cops and Bravura would have no choice but to send other cops to my aid.

I went back to my place to get spare guns that I kept in my safe. I tried to keep a low profile around my neighbors. Even though I was cop most of my neighbors didn't want anything to do with me and stayed as far away as possible. My past was very well with the city of New York. It was probably for the best anyways. I grabbed a bite to eat, got the guns and headed out.

The old Ragna Rock club, or as it was called now, Vodka, had been abandoned since Vlad's death. In fact, Vodka never even had a chance to officially open. We had cleared the place after the huge evidence investigation. The place was completely emptied. If Gognitti was in there, there wouldn't much cover to dodge bullets.

When I arrived I waited a while until I went in. I knew my way around the place very well. I got out of the car and walked up to the front door. When I walked in, I immediately got out my pistol. I didn't know how many of Gognitti's men were stationed in the building. I had to watch my every step. I walked over to the ticket box where the secret door to the hidden rooms of the building was. My luck was not showing anything positive. The switch had been blown completely off and I wasn't going to make a lot of noise breaking down a door at the risk of getting caught. I had to find another way in.

We had the back door cemented shut to prevent trespassers on the property. I walked up the stairs to the two main doors. Someone was here; the lock that was put on the door had been broken off. I listened for any type of sounds to see if there was anyone in the next room. I couldn't hear anything. I walked in slowly. There was no one. The electricity had been shut down in the building. This made things a lot harder to see and it put me a little more on edge. I walked around a little more. I was ready to fire my gun at any moment.

I started walking toward the back and immediately heard footsteps. They were heading my way. I ducked into the corner. Finally some people walked through the door. I was ready to shoot but they turned out to be a couple teenagers, a boy and girl..

"Freeze!" I said. Both of them jumped. They were obviously on some kind of drug.

"Easy officer."

"What are you kids doing here, this is a shut down building."

"We're sorry officer." The boy said. They didn't know how lucky they were that I didn't blow one of their heads off. "Come with me." I walked both of them out of the building. "Get in my car. I'll take you down to the station. You're parents can pick you up there." Both of them got into the car but before I could open my door. BAM!! A bomb went off on top of the building. The explosion was so big, it wrapped around the whole top of the building. I quickly jumped in the car and drove the car away from the building so that the debris didn't hurt kids. "Stay here." I yelled.

I already knew that this wasn't a good judgment call on my part. I guess my heart was so big that my brain to have say. When I walked in, what was once a pretty good-looking building was falling apart before my very eyes. The ceiling looked like it was going to cave in but the large beams holding it up bought me a little bit of time. My instincts were telling me to go to where the bomb had exploded. I felt like my instincts were putting me in danger. I ran though the main entrance way all the way to the stairs. I had at least 4 floors to go up until I reached it. The more I went up the more the building trembled. Time was running out.

When I reached the top, what was once the fourth floor was now the roof to the building. Three bodies lay on the floor. They looked like Gognitti's men. A broken piece of the bomb also lay on the floor. Looks like Gognitti's men didn't know how to set a without setting it off in the process. I finally realized that those two kids saved me. The building was trembling worse then ever. I quickly ran back downstairs. I finally made it outside. I had gotten lucky again because the building finally collapsed once I had gotten in my car.

"Thank You." I said to both kids.

"For what?"

I didn't answer. I just took them back to the station. With the Ragna Rock club completely destroyed, I had nothing to go on. I could only hope that something else would happen that would give me a lead. Maybe my luck would get better.

Officer Harris took care of the kids when I brought them to the station. I went back up to my desk. When I made it up I had just realized I was covered with dust and debris from the building. Bravura was waiting for me for some reason.

"Payne? What the hell happened to you?" He asked.

"They knew I was coming. Gognitti's men set off a bomb on the top the building. The building is left in ruins."

Bravura held up a file. "Officer Robinson thought this might be of some help to you in your case." He handed it to me and I opened it. The file was on Woden's Manner.

"Why would Gognitti go to Woden's manner? We have cops covering the place."

"Because even though that file shows the blueprints of that. I have a feeling there are more rooms in that house then we might seeing and the only person that has gotten even close to that house is...you." Bravura stared at me with an almost sarcastic look but he was right nonetheless.

"I've already informed the officers on the property that you're on your way."

I didn't take a genius to figure out that Bravura was the one who looked up the file on manner to help me. I didn't want to say anything to him but I was grateful. I drove up to Woden's manner. The manner from the outside looked like a house that would be haunted. To me it was. It was haunted with so much of my past. Officer London opened the gate for me and hopped into my car as we drove up the front of the manner.

"What's up Payne?" He said.

"Hey London." I tried to sound as enthusiastic as possible to hide the emotional baggage slowly filling me up.

We finally made it to the front. Officer Steven's was waiting on the steps.

"Is there anymore officers here?" I asked.

"Sadly it's only us."

"There should be more men looking after a house this size."

"That's what we said but Bravura felt it was best to have more officers available if something extreme happened."

I didn't understand Bravura's decision to only put two men on Woden's gigantic thirty-room manner. It made no sense but it was too late to argue.

"All right, both of you follow me." I would have had us split up but the house was too big and three guns shooting together was better then one gun shooting alone. The house had been cleaned and slightly restored since my little gunfight with Vlad. However, a humungous whole remained in the middle of the ceiling from when Vlad had fallen and burned to his death.

With the three of us walking together, it was going to take a while for all three of us to search the house. I decided to walk up to Woden's office first. It seemed like the logical place to start. We all had our guns out just in case any unsuspecting guest decided to crash our little search.

"London, come in." London's radio startled us all. A silent mansion had us a little on edge. We all shared a laugh of relief.

"London here."

"It's Robinson, Bravura sending other troops to the house to surround the place while you guys search."

"Awesome."

Now I knew that Bravura was completely on my side again. The tip on Woden's house had finally gotten him interested in joining the case again. We all entered the office.

Steven's went immediately to the right to the T.V.

"Steven's, what the hell are you doing?" London asked.

"We are the only three here at this moment. I am not searching in silent. We can at least listen to the game." Steven's said. Steven's was known for not following the rules but I wasn't enjoying the silence either.

But I tried to act professional. "We need to listen for sounds as well." I said.

"Sounds? So far all I hear are crickets, and those fuckers are outside. That's how silent it is in here. We need some entertainment to listen to." He said. London and I looked at each other and smiled.

Steven's turned it on and we heard the hockey game. I didn't want to admit it to Steven's but I did feel more comfortable. More comfortable then I had felt in a long time. But the comfort stopped when I opened Woden's draw to see a letter.

Gognitti himself wrote the letter. He didn't sign it but I could never forget Gognitti's screwy handwriting. It was addressed to John Woden. Judging by the date, Woden's son was on the property the day of his father's death before Mona and I invaded the house.

The letter read..."Payne and your Father both fell for the trap but there are still several parts to our agreement that still need tending to. Vlad is in charge of finishing off Payne and that psychotic bitch Sax. We need to finish this fast. With Payne on us that means that cops a sure to follow."

I didn't even get through the whole letter when all of a sudden the elevator lift in Woden's office started working. We all got out our guns to greet who had ever started it but when the doors opened no one was there.

"Should we take it?" London said.

"Hell no I'm not getting in there." Stevens said in his frightened voice.

"We have no choice." I said. "Just have your guns ready." We all headed into the elevator and we head down. I already knew where the elevator went. It went straight to Woden's bedroom.

The elevator doors opened to reveal Gognitti standing right in front of them. I immediately aimed my gun.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Steven's said. I looked to both my sides to see London and Steven's holding both guns to my head. I didn't understand. I had known both of them since they had started. Long before I had any business with Gognitti.

"Sorry Payne but money says a lot man." London said. I was disgusted. I couldn't believe two of our top cops fell for the money that Gognitti had offered, so much for loyalty.

**Chapter 7: My Lucky Stars**

I looked around the room and saw Mona tied to a chair. She was knocked out cold.

"What have you done to her?" I asked furiously at Gognitti.

"Let's just say she is in a Valkyr's dream." He said with his sick voice. "You would know a little something about that wouldn't you Payne?"

"We've got to hurry up back-up are on their way." London said.

"How long do we have?" Gognitti asked.

London spoke through the radio. "Bravura where's our back-up?"

"They are less then mile away from the facility." Bravura responded.

"FUCK FUCK!!" Gognitti screamed at the top of his lungs. "They'll be here any minute." And just as Gognitti said it police lights flooded the windows of the house. Gognitti pointed his gun straight at me. BAM!! The windows to the room shattered as the S.W.A.T. team barged in. I was thanking my lucky stars. Gognitti bailed but from the team saw London and Steven's were placed under arrest and we untied Mona. One of the S.W.A.T team members gave me a gun and we went after Gognitti.

We searched the whole house but Gognitti was gone. Our only prediction was that he had escaped through one of the passages in the house.

Mona was taken to the hospital. She had been beaten and tortured by Gognitti and with Valkyr in her system her life was on the line. After three hours of waiting, it looked like Mona was going to be all right. The doctors said she needed to rest for a couple hours before I could see her, so I headed back to the station.

Bravura was unhappier then ever. "I can't believe it. My own goddamn officers have gone greedy over money. I'm sorry Payne. I shouldn't have sent you there."

"But sir we got Mona and now we know that Alfred Woden was tricked as well."

"I know but now we have no lead on to where Gognitti is." Bravura said. "Our only hope is to what Sax has to say."

"What will happen to her after this?" I said curiously.

"She is going to jail. Innocent in this case or not, she is still a fugitive on many other cases. I'm going to see to it personally that she is sent to a more secure facility." While I didn't agree with Bravura's decision, to me, I was just happy that she would be sent some place where she wouldn't be in danger.

I drove back to the hospital. Mona had finally woken up. The hospital had more then enough security surrounding it due to Vlad's men breaking into it to come after me. I walked into the hospital. It was tough seeing Mona attached to wires. The hospital actually was able to save her from the Valkyr.

I walked in silently. Mona was staring up at the ceiling. Mona looked like she was riddled with mixed emotions.

"I should've died back there." She said before I could even sit down.

"You don't mean that." I responded.

"Yes I do Max." She looked straight into my eyes. "You think the things you have against Vinnie is personal. It's not even close to how personal it is between him and I."

"I understand that Mona but why do you think you should have died."

"That drug, that Valkyr. I saw things that I had refused to see. It's my fault that all of this happened."

"No it's not Mona. That drug is designed to make you think that. I've been there." Mona stared at me as I began to choke up. "I saw things that I had never seen before. It made me believe things that weren't true. I believed that the death of my wife and baby girl was my fault. I had never felt worse." I stared back at Mona. "Believe me, whatever your feeling right now. What you think is your fault. It's not true. Don't believe that, believe me."

Mona stared at me. The tears were welling up in both our eyes. She sat up as much as she could and she hugged me. It was hard seeing Mona like this. The woman who was once tougher then I was was breaking down before my eyes. Valkyr had left her in a state of almost incurable depression. Mona had to fight and I knew she could.

Mona finally lied back down. I had to let all my emotions go. I had to get back down to business.

"Mona, I need your help more then ever. I need to know where Gognitti might be going."

Mona stared away from me after I asked her. She stared out the window. Her expression was completely blank.

"I wish I knew." She answered. Not exactly the answer I was looking for. The way Mona said it led me to believe she was lying.

"Mona, I need the truth." The blank expression of hers quickly turned into anger. I loved Mona but at the moment love played no part of this game.

"I can't tell you." She said. She looked like she was trying to come herself down. I don't think it was working.

"I need to know Mona, there is no other way."

Mona quickly responded. "No Max, there's no other way for you or those half ass cops out there. You only see Gognitti as someone who needs to be arrested. Me, I see much more. I see a man who used me for nothing more then his needs. This is my mission, not yours. Take that to your damn chief."

I wanted to argue and yell at Mona for what she was saying but I kept quiet. I slowly walked out of the hospital stunned at the emotional change in Mona. In one conversation I saw two different Mona's. I needed to get security at her room fast before she did something she was going to regret. Mona was fighting her inner demons and was losing fast.

Bravura wasn't happy with Mona giving no answer. We needed a lead and we needed it now. I didn't want to force an answer out of her. To me she was the only special person left in my life. To Bravura, she was nothing more then a fugitive who needed to be questioned and brought to justice.

I walked into Bravura's office. He wasn't in one of his better moods. "The mayor is breathing down my neck about Gognitti. We need an answer Payne. He's giving us only forty-eight hours to find Gognitti or else we're losing the case to the F.B.I." The F.B.I. was nothing more then bad news to any cop on the force. They always had a habit on screwing up our cases and making us look like the bad guys.

"I couldn't get her to talk." I had made it sound like I had tried to force an answer from Mona. I figured if I made it sound like that Bravura would leave her alone. I was dead wrong.

"I'm going to question her myself."

"I'll go with you." I told Bravura. I shouldn't have said anything.

"No Payne. You're staying here. Stay at your desk until I come back with an answer." I didn't like the way Bravura said that. It made me wonder how he was going to get Mona to talk.

I did as I was told and went to my desk. Stacy's desk was right across from mine. It was Winterson's old desk. She wasn't at her desk. Bravura has sent her on another case. Robinson walked in. His shift was just beginning for the day. He came over to my desk.

"Heard you had some trouble at Woden's manner." He said

"How'd you find out?" I said with a smile.

"You know how word spreads fast around this place. But at least you got out of there." He said smiling back. I liked Robinson he was a good friend. He was the closest friend I had at the precinct since Alex and I worked together. "What about Sax? Any word from her?"

"No but Bravura is going down there to question her now." Right when I said that Officer Granados ran in.

"We got to go. A bomb exploded in Gognitti's apartment building!" We quickly got up and ran to our cars. Too little too late because by the time we got there the building was completely gone. According to the fire department there was no one in the building. I knew this was going make the case even harder. Sadly, I only had a little less than forty-eight hours to add it all up.

We all returned back to the station. There was nothing we could do about Gognitti's building. Bravura was in his office when we got back. There was no sense on knocking, so I walked in.

"Anything?" I said.

"She gave us a small clue about Hell's Kitchen but nothing else." Judging by the look on Bravura's face Mona had given him a hard time as well. "I heard about the apartment building. Any clue on who might have done it?"

"Right now the only person I can think of is Gognitti doing it." I said.

"Listen Payne, we are running short on time. I need you to scope all over Hell's Kitchen and..." The phone rang right before he could continue. "Hello. WHAT? We'll be right done." Bravura slammed the phone down. " Grab every officer down there. There's been a fire fight at the hospital."

We didn't waste any time. By the time we had gotten to the hospital the firefight was over. However, we didn't know whom the firefight was against. Several of the security guards waited for us outside the hospital.

"What happened?" Bravura screamed

"We don't know, we were guarding the back of the hospital when we heard a barrage of bullets being fired in the hospital. By the time we got in, it was over."

Bravura and me watched the security cams to see what had happened. It appeared the Gognitti's men had shown up to take Mona away. They literally killed everyone that got in their way. However, by the time they had gotten to Mona's room it appeared that Mona was gone. We could see Gognitti's men throwing fits like they were five years old. Mona had managed to escape. We rewound the footage to see if we could see how Mona had escaped. Mona had escaped through the hospital window. We don't know how she got down to the ground since she was on the third floor but she managed it.

I wasn't as much surprised as Bravura was. He looked straight at me. "Get to hell's kitchen. Now!"

I didn't know whether to believe Mona's words on Hell's Kitchen or not but anything was worth a shot. Mona had escaped yet again but things were getting even more dangerous. I knew that this was a mission that Mona couldn't survive on her own. I had to find and Hell's Kitchen was my only lead.

The mayor had tried to turn Hell's Kitchen into Heaven's Kitchen but with crime rising daily it wasn't an easy goal. Even two years into his term Hell's Kitchen was no better off then it was before he came into the picture. Hell's Kitchen was the real downside of New York. Hookers, murderers, criminals, and future criminals flooded the streets. This was the type of place I could picture Gognitti living in.

I could only imagine what Gognitti was thinking right now knowing that his men had failed to catch Mona. He should have known that Mona wasn't going to be easy but Gognitti sadly wasn't that smart. While being a longtime criminal his common sense always seemed to be absent from him. Why Gognitti didn't flea town when he had the chance was beyond me. After all, he had all the money in the world now. Why was Mona so important? Either way, I was in the belly of the beast with no turning back. I was either going to find my answers and solve the case or I was going to die by the end of this. Both ends sounded good at this point.

I went from street to street asking countless questions to certain people on whether they had seen Gognitti. However, these weren't the types of people to actually answer my questions. Cops were like Hitler to most of the people in this part of New York. Not one cop could be trusted. A pharmacy was near by. I decided to see if I could get an answer there. Rich citizens who didn't live anywhere near this hell hold owned most of the businesses. They were always sending their wonderful loan sharks to get their money. The pharmacy I went to just so happened to be one of those places. The man behind the counter was being yelled at by an even bigger man holding a gun. I chose a great time to enter the store.

"If you want you're business to be protected, pay up or kiss your life goodbye, got it?" I entered the store, with my gun in hand.

"N.Y.P.D drop the gun."

"Easy officer, we were just talking business."

He headed for the door. I didn't feel like arresting him. I had bigger fish to fry. I just waited until he was far enough away from the store.

"Thank you officer." The manager said behind the counter.

"Mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Go right ahead."

"Have you ever seen this man?" I showed him a picture of Vinnie Gognitti and the man stared at me in shock. That is the man that said he could protect my business.

"Him?"

"Yeah, he came and offered all the businesses protection from all the crime in this town if we paid him a certain amount of money."

"Any clue where he might be?"

"No sir."

"Thank you."

It appeared that Gognitti was playing Godfather of Hell's Kitchen, taking over businesses that would make him earn even more money. The man that I stopped in the pharmacy was one of his men. I saw where he started walking and walked in that direction to see if I could get some kind of clue where he was going.

I barely ran around the corner and I could hear gunshots being fired on the second floor of one of the apartment buildings. A bunch of tenants ran out of the building.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Someone just got killed in there."

"Wait right here."

They were all frightened and some were in tears. I ran up to the floor where the gunshots had taken place. A door to one of the apartments was opened. I had my gun in my hands ready for anything. When I went in I found the man that had been in the pharmacy lying dead on the floor. Someone had done a real number on him. He had at least ten bullets lodged in his head. I called Bravura and had him send back up. Back up arrived in a matter of minutes.

I asked all of the tenants who lived on that floor questions. One person gave me the answers I was looking for.

"Did you hear anything besides the shooting?" I asked.

"Just a lot of screaming. Some man with a high voice was screaming his head off." He said. That was enough to prove to me that it was Gognitti. I guess Gognitti wasn't happy that one of his men saw me. Gognitti was on the run again but he was running out of places to run. Soon I would catch him stuck in a corner but with only hours to go I had to pray that corner came sometime soon.

I went back to my car. A strange note had been attached to the window. The strange part was that it was attached on the inside of the car.

"Dear Max, not turning out exactly how you had planned is it. Come meet me at the Ragna Rock club. I have something you might want to see.

Love Mona."

Mona loved playing games. I decided to play along. I didn't know what Mona wanted to show me but I take any piece of evidence to get this over with.

I drove to the Ragna Rock club. It was still surrounded by debris from the bomb that went off. When I walked in, I actually was afraid. With no electricity and it being so late at night the club looked more haunting that ever.

I heard footsteps walking my way and there she was. Mona grabbed my arm and took me to place she wanted me to see. She didn't say a word until we got there. We walked to the back where the stage areas use to be in the club. Mona walked up to the control panel hit one of the buttons. The stage rose up and under it was room.

"I think this might help you." She said. I just stood there stunned. We both walked in. The room was full of plans and drawing of my past. All the plans from project Valhalla, the names of all the test subjects for the drug Valkyr, and a spy picture of my wife were all in this one room.

"Vlad sent all the information from this room to Horne." Mona said. I looked closely to the test subject names. I was on the list. "The file that showed up at your wife's desk about Valhalla was meant for you but your wife opened it first. We couldn't risk sending it to your house or the police station. The file was sent by Woden for you to give to Bravura, so that the police had evidence to know who was behind it but when Horne found out about the information she sent men to kill whoever had hold of the file, your wife." I just stood there listening. I held back my tears. "When Horne hired me I was secretly working for Woden to gather more evidence about Valkyr and Horne, which is one of the reasons I didn't kill you and the reason why I didn't want you going to Woden's manner to fight Vlad."

Suddenly what I thought I knew I didn't know. Everything was much more clear. Mona had explained everything. Mona was always on my side and I had gained new faith to finish what I had started.

"What does Gognitti have to do with all of this?" I asked.

"He is the last piece of the puzzle. He was one of many mob bosses that took part in Project Valhalla. You've killed all but him. Gognitti was smart and laid low while every other boss were getting over confident. Thinking that Horne had sworn them protection but Gognitti knew better."

"Where can we find him?"

"I know where he is. You just have to drive me there." Mona said. Mona had me interested up until that point. Mona wanted to shoot Gognitti herself but I had a bullet with his name on it and I was not holding back just because of her. I would drive her there but I would shoot first.

**Chapter 8: A False End**

We jumped into my car and I drove to where Mona wanted to go. The drive took us all the way to time square. I wasn't feeling comfortable about this. Too many innocent people could get killed in this fight.

I didn't want to call for back up. With Mona with me they would take her away and I didn't want her behind bars, at least not yet. Time Square was the new location of the Aesir Corporation. After Project Valhalla was found to be connected with the company they almost went bankrupt. A man named Gary Norton bought the company and the company was not only a science company, it was now also an electronics company, making various types of televisions, radios and other things. The company's change was finally starting to pay off and it was slowly starting to become a success again.

I had the honor of meeting Norton. He was a very nice man. The complete opposite of Horne and he too had a family of his own.

"Gognitti tried to negotiate with Norton to try and buy his company. Norton wouldn't have any of it and had Gognitti banned from the building. You know that won't stop him." Mona said. "Gognitti's original intention was to start project Valhalla again but to over shadow it with the electronics side of the company so that the law didn't know what he was doing."

Mona and I went into inside. We asked to see Norton. I showed my badge and we were quickly sent up. Norton's office was almost bigger then our entire office at the police station. I was decorated with various lights and security cam televisions.

"Max, it's great to see you again." He said with a smile.

"Great to see you." I responded.

"Please, have a seat." Mona and I sat down. I got right down to business. Although I had a clue on what Gognitti was doing I wanted to hear it from him to see if Mona was accurate.

"So what is up with Vinnie Gognitti and your company?"

"That man just wouldn't take no for an answer." He said, the smile left his face. "He offered me several million to take the company off of my hands."

"Any clue why?"

"All I know is that I've had to double security because of him and his men showing up at main headquarters."

"Main headquarters?"

"Yes, the original Aesir building formerly owned by Nicole Horne is the head quarters for our business." He said. "Security caught him and his men trying to break in on all sides of the building but our security managed to chase him off."

"You could apprehend him?"

"No, his men were like shields to him. They covered him while he made a clean getaway and then they left."

"Why didn't you call authorities on this?"

"Not their business. I like to take care of things myself. Especially when it is a threat to my company." Gary Norton was considered the toughest of businessmen. He thrived on competition. I knew very well that this was a competition that he couldn't win if he tried. His refusal of help would only lead to whatever downfall was destined for him. I was going to help whether he liked it or not. The thought of Gognitti getting a hold of the company was worse then anything. There was no way I was going to let it happen.

Mona and I walked out. I was a little shocked that Norton stayed at one of his other buildings and not at headquarters but I wasn't about to ask him about it. I wasn't in the mood.

"We need to head to the company headquarters." Mona said without hesitation. I didn't know what Mona was thinking on that call. I would have rather called Bravura for backup before we moved. "Vinnie is liable to hire more men to his cause." She said. I didn't disagree but it was more reason why we needed more help but Mona wouldn't have any of it.

We drove to the building as fast as we could. The building was in no way, shape or form different then the last time I had saw. It looked like seventy-eight floors of hell.

"We need to search his office at headquarters." Mona said. We entered the building. Security tried to cut us off but my badge cut them off instead. With no warrant, I had to call up Norton himself to give me permission to search.

"This is Gary Norton."

"Hey Gary, it's Max. Look I was wondering if I could search your office at headquarters. I want to see if any evidence will help me with Gognitti."

"You have my full permission, search anywhere you think needs to be search."

With that Mona and I went straight to the elevator. All of the elevators were outdoor glass elevators. We headed up but it would be a short ride.

DING, DING, DING!!

A loud alarm went off through the entire building.

"BREACH ON THE PREMISES!" From the sound of things Gognitti's men were making their move. We were twenty stories up when the elevator did an emergency stop. I looked down to the ground to see if I could see what was going on. Then all of a sudden a loud sound filled the elevator.

"MAX!" Mona yelled. She was pointing at four helicopters heading our way. I assumed they were police helicopters. I was wrong. One of the helicopters headed to where Mona and I were. I had a sudden feeling of Deja Vu but this time I had no where to run. The helicopter stopped in front of us and turned. The door of the helicopter opened to reveal Gognitti.

Over a loud speaker he spoke. "Hey there Payne! You have no clue how good it is to see you again...for the last time!" He said in his evil high voice. "Oh, hey Mona, I almost didn't see you there. It's a shame that someone as beautiful as you has to die but you've left me with no choice! Goodbye ha, ha, ha!" He laughed as they close the door. The helicopter turned and pointed towards Mona and I and we were waiting to accept its bullets but the helicopter went up. The helicopter aimed for the cords holding elevator. I looked down. The ground seemed so far away. The helicopter began to fire. It didn't take long for the bullets to break through the thick cord and then we fell. The seconds we took to fall seemed like forever and then we hit then everything went black.

Death is nothing more then a dream. It's like reliving things you don't want to relive. In my dream I woke up in my old house. I was doing my daily routine. My wife was lying next to me in bed. She was so beautiful. I got out of bed and put on my robe. I walked downstairs to get the paper but when I opened the door the street wasn't there, it was Ragna Rock. I turned around and my house wasn't there anymore and standing in front of me was Vlad.

"Max, dearest of all my friends" He said. "I'm so happy to see you again."

"What is this?" I asked

"Lets just say it's your version of purgatory but its not."

"What do you mean?"

"That is the answer you have to find." When he said that he began to disappear and the Ragna Rock began to disappear as well. The next thing I new I was standing in the middle of Lupino's hotel. I walked around; everything was as I remembered it. All of a sudden a pain in my head began to take over. I fell to my knees and voices began to flood my brain.

"Max, dearest of all my friends; Cartoon violence is a fascinating thing; run Payne run; Is this the Payne residence; Why won't you just die; She's high up, government maybe; She is coming; You can't just kill me in cold blood; Bang you're dead Max Payne; have a good day darling; MURDERER YOU KILLED HER; YOU'RE A REAL ANGEL MAX; THE FLESH OF FALLING ANGELS!!"

The voices finally began to fade and I stood up but the hotel was no more. I was back in the elevator and it was still going up. The door opened and I was back at the police station. I went to my desk. I stopped fast to see Valerie Winterson sitting at her desk.

"Hey Max, how are you?" She asked. I was stunned.

"What are you doing here?" I asked

"I'm working, what does it look like?" She said with a smile.

I continued going to my desk. I was more confused then ever. I sat down at my desk and looked on my computer. There was a message for me on the computer. The message was from an anonymous person.

"Who could this be?" I asked myself.

"PAYNE! CAN YOU HEAR ME?" The message said. The message flooded the computer.

"Max?" Winterson came walking up to me. As she was walking up the office began to fade. It had turned into a construction site. Mona was standing next to me. "She is a fugitive murder suspect."

"Wait!" I said.

"Back off Payne."

"She's one of them. She's here to kill me." Then the scene stopped and Vlad reappeared.

"You know what happened after that don't you?" He asked.

"Yes, I killed Winterson."

"I can't say I wasn't angry to hear about her death but you're love for Mona was real love unlike my love for Valerie."

"I don't get it. I killed you. Why are you helping me?" I asked

"I guess when you're dead you're enemies aren't really you're enemies anymore."

"Am I dead?"

"That depends, do you want to be?"

That was the toughest question I had ever had to face. There were times that I had wished to die. All the firefights I had gotten into. All the times that I had come so close to losing my life and yet I never did. Did I deserve to live?

The more I thought about it, the more I knew that I had to live. I was sick of being shot at but I didn't want to die knowing that I had not finished my mission in life. Gognitti was that mission and if I had to really die I would take him with me.

"I want to live." I said

"Then goodbye again, old friend."

Everything went white and I was finally coming to.

"Payne, are you all right." A distant voice said and then finally it became clearer. Officer Robinson was trying to revive me. I opened my eyes. "HE'S ALIVE!" I woke up with everyone from the precinct standing around me. "Geez Payne, if that fall would have been any higher you would've been a goner." I got up, to my surprise I wasn't in any pain whatsoever, besides a headache..

"Where's Mona?" I asked

"The doctors are looking at her. She's awake finally."

"Any injuries to her?"

"Doesn't look like it." I don't know how Mona and I could have been so lucky, I didn't appear to be injured and she didn't look injured at all.

"Mona!" I ran to Mona while the doctors were looking her over.

"Detective we're taking her to hospital now, you can talk to her there."

They loaded Mona in the ambulance and took off. I turned around to see Bravura staring at me.

" You had us worried Payne." He said with a smile. "Look Payne, I know we still have twenty-two hours left to solve this case but I'm thinking of just letting the F.B.I handle it, so it takes it off your shoulders."

"I want to continue this case sir."

"But Payne, you just fell ten stories because of this man how..."

"All the more reason I need to catch him." I said. "This is and has been my case for the past seven years and I'm going to finish it."

I walked away from Bravura and went to view the damage done to the building by the helicopters. Robinson and I went up to search.

"I don't get it Payne, what is it about this case that makes you want to solve it so bad? Robinson asked.

"Because I don't want bullets shooting at me anymore." I said. Robinson thought I was being sarcastic and smiled but I was serious. The building was full with bullet holes and broken glass from the helicopters. Judging by the look of the building, the helicopters started from the bottom up. They didn't make it past half the buildings. From the looks of it they took off when the police had arrived.

I went up to Norton's office. Luckily it was in the part of the building that wasn't attacked. Other police officers and detectives were already searching the room.

"Payne?" One of the officers called for me. "Check this out." One of our officers was able to hack into Norton's computer. Norton was receiving messages from Gognitti like crazy. Gognitti's threats sounded a bit farfetched but that didn't mean the Gognitti wouldn't try.

BAMM!! "A huge bang was heard at the bottom of the building. The building shook like crazy.

"Pa...P...Payne!" Bravura's voice was fool of static on Robinson's radio. I picked up the radio to see what was going on.

"What was that?" I asked.

"You need to get out of there. A bomb just went off in the basement of the building."

Immediately everyone started heading down the stares. The elevators were on emergency stop due to the explosion. I stopped halfway through and looked out the window to see the helicopters coming back. We were in trouble. We needed to hurry.

We made it down to the bottom. The S.W.A.T team was armed and ready to fight. But four armed helicopters might have been too much and our helicopters had just barely been called. They were going to be too late.

Three of the helicopters circled the building while one hovered over us.

"SHOOT IT DOWN!" Bravura yelled.

"WE CAN'T SIR, IT'S TOO CLOSE. IT WILL LAND ON TOP OF US!"

I looked up to see several of Gognitti's men leaving the helicopters and heading into the building. I got sick of seeing Gognitti get his way. I ran back into the building.

"PAYNE!" Bravura yelled. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

I was putting an end to this once and for all, even if it meant me facing hundreds of Gognitti's men. Bravura kept everyone outside. Everyone was so focused on the one helicopter. I was the only one to see Gognitti's men sneak in.

With only two pistols, I would have to be smart about my moves until I was able to get one of their guns. With Gognitti's men still making their way into the building I had a little more time until they would find me. I headed up. No more choices were there for me. This could only end one of two ways. I would either kill Gognitti or I would be killed, that was it. I couldn't pretend not to be worried at this point.

The stairs seemed to go on forever. There would be no heaven at the top of this stairway. What waited on top of these stairs was nothing more then a shortcut to hell but the question was who would be going there.

"The boss says we got to bring him alive." I was finally close, the voice of one of Gognitti's men was a dead giveaway. "Ready? Let's go." I peaked around the corner. Three of Gognitti's men were heading my way. I turned around the corner and began firing. "GET HIM!" They all fell down like a sack of hammers. Being silent failed me a long time ago. My best option was to run and just shoot everyone that got in my way. It had worked for me before and I would be damned if it didn't work again. The sound of footsteps flooded the floors above me. The sound of gunfire had all of Gognitti's men heading downstairs to where I was. I needed to find someplace to hide.

"Find him! Remember the boss wants him alive." I heard one of Gognitti's men say. "Go, radio back when you've..." BAM! Gunfire went off where they were standing. The force of one of the shots actually sent one of the guys flying down the stairs. I ran up to see what had happened. Four of Gognitti's men had been shot. Someone else was in the building. I ran up the stairs to see if I could find out who it was. Each flight of stairs I went up, another one of Gognitti's men lay dead on the floor. I ran up another flight of stairs and BAM! I was met with the butt of a gun to the face. I fell back down the stairs. I opened my eyes. My vision was blurry. When it finally cleared I saw Mona standing before me.

"Mona? How?" I was stunned beyond belief.

"I have my ways." She said staring at me. "Max, you need to leave. Go back down and leave. That's all you need to do. You can wash your hands of the whole thing and let the pain and stress go."

"If only it were that easy." I said. "I have to finish this."

"No you don't. Leave it to me. You've been through enough."

"You'll have to kill me to stop me." Right when I said that she pointed her gun at me. I didn't have any fear left in my body. I was willing to be shot.

"You're a nice guy Max. I don't kill nice guys." She said. She said those same words to me in this exact same building. "Even though I wish I would." She added. "Max, I can't stand seeing you get hurt."

"That's how I feel for you." I said.

She looked at me and it looked like she was actually trying to hide her smile. The emotion on her face quickly turned into emotionless. "The way this is going. We're just going to have to see who can kill Gognitti first. We'll need each other to get through all of Gognitti's men. When we find Gognitti it's just a matter of who can shoot fastest."

Mona wanted Gognitti as much as I did and wanted her bullet to shoot, not mine. She was right we would need each other to get through Gognitti's men but it wouldn't be that way when we found Gognitti. Mona headed back up and I followed.

Mona had taken care of a lot of Gognitti's men but we didn't how many more men were in the building.

"All right, Payne and Sax are in the building." We heard Gognitti from the stairs on the seventy-fifth floor. "No more mister nice guy. Surround them, they'll have no choice but to give up."

Mona was listening though the wall. All of sudden she pointed at one spot on the wall. I didn't know what she was doing. BAM! She shot three bullets and I heard a couple of Gognitti's men go down like a sack of potatoes. I looked at her strangely.

"What?" She asked. "I wasn't hired as an assassin for nothing."

We walked through the seventy-fifth floor door. Gognitti was gone but a surprising four of his men lay dead on the floor. I went ahead while Mona covered me from behind. We weren't just watching out for Gognitti's men. We were also watching out for his helicopters, which were still circling the building. We walked around. There was no sign of Gognitti's men anywhere.

After Mona and I checked that floor, we went up to another level. However, when we opened the doors, at least twenty of Gognitti's men stood waiting. We were outnumbered.

"Drop'em!" One of them said. Mona and I threw our guns down and we were taken up to the roof of the building. On top of the building Gognitti stood on the edge of the building looking down while his huge helicopter was landing on the building.

"You know what's funny Payne?" He asked. "How you always manage to live when everyone else dies. My men shoot and shoot and shoot and yet you fire a couple of bullets and they're dead!" He turned around. This was not the Gognitti I remembered. This was Rich Gognitti; he had a new tailor made suite with sunglasses to match, gold watch and all. "I mean I don't get it, what drives you to do such things. You've killed my boss, you've killed his boss, and you've even killed the woman running the whole thing. Are there any more names I should add to that list?" Gognitti started pacing like crazy. "And then you fall in love with someone that has past that is just as bad as mine."

"Things change, people change." I said. I was defending Mona.

"You're wrong Payne." Gognitti said. "You think after all that she has done. All that she has done with me and on her own that she would change." Gognitti walked up to me and suddenly we were nose to nose. "No one changes. The only thing we all can do is try and lock up our pasts and hope it stays locked but it doesn't. There is never key to lock up who you really are."

In a way what Gognitti said made a lot of sense. But Mona had had enough.

"Oh come off it Vinnie. You want us dead so bad why don't you do it and stop running fucking mouth."

Gognitti's expression changed. What had looked to be sheer confidence then turned into anger and rage. "You know it's a shame that I have to kill you." He said to Mona. "Until death do us part. Boy, who would have thought how true those words would be." Vinnie smiled.

"TAKE COVER!!" One of his men said and BAMM!! Gognitti's helicopter was completely decimated. The force of the explosion sent us all flying back into the wall. I looked up to see the N.Y.P.D. helicopters surrounding the building. The helicopters were a little late but better late then never.

"VINCENT GOGNITTI, YOU ARE COMPLETELY SURROUNDED DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND PUT YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD." Bravura's voice echoed throughout New York.

For the first time since I first met him, Gognitti had nowhere to run. I looked around to see if Mona was all right but she was gone. Mona had disappeared as soon as the N.Y.P.D. had shown up.

**CHAPTER 9: MONA'S REVENGE**

Bravura couldn't have been any happier. We had finally caught the man who had been running from us for days. Cops who hadn't gotten any sleep could finally rest, especially me.

"Chief, we're ready to take these men in." One of the members of the S.W.A.T said.

They were ready to take Gognitti and his team to prison. No judge, no jury, no case whatsoever, just prison. "Good, take them away."

"Yes sir."

"What about Sax, any sign of her?" Bravura asked.

"No sir, we couldn't find her."

"Damn it!" Bravura shouted. "We finally catch Gognitti and yet it's not over. I want you and you're men to search every square inch of this city. I want her caught and I want her caught now!"

"Yes sir." One S.W.A.T. truck took off with Gognitti and the rest went looking for Mona.

I went to my to also look for Mona. "Where do you think you're going Payne?" Bravura walked up to me before I could even get in. "You're not going hunting for Sax either. I need you to follow that S.W.A.T truck with Gognitti all the way to Downstate Correctional Facility. I need answers from him and his team now. We've finally got Gognitti so the F.B.I is no longer breathing down our necks but we have to be sure this is really over."

Bravura was just trying to keep me separated from Mona. Judging by the look on his face it looked like he thought I had let Mona get away when we were on the rooftop. While it was false I couldn't say I wouldn't do it if I had the chance. I did what I was told

I wasn't looking forward to going to Downstate. All that was left of Vlad's men were in this facility. With no leader, they all turned themselves in. The facility was huge, taking up acres of space. I showed my badge and followed the S.W.A.T truck to the spot of facility where they would be keeping Gognitti. They unloaded Gognitti and his men and did the usual search. Got them changed into their jail cloths and then they were ready for questioning. They were located in a separate building away from the rest of the prisoners. Bravura thought it would be safe that way. I walked around a bit, stalling for time. With the F.B.I no longer involved I no longer had to worry about time, no reason to rush things.

I finally told the guards to bring Gognitti. Gognitti's shouting echoed throughout the prison.

"Will you get your hands off me. You told me to walk and I'm walking, that gives you no reason to shove, fucking cops!" Gognitti walked in, saw me and immediately tried to leave. "Oh no, I'm not sitting with him, he'll kill me!" They shut the door. "I bet you like seeing me like this Payne don't you." He said with the sound of fear. "Handcuffed and helpless."

"I can't say I don't." I said. "Sit down."

Gognitti hesitated a little and then finally sat down. I also hesitated with my questions. I honestly didn't know what to ask him. Bravura was just trying to keep me out of the way. But after a while of thinking, there was one question I actually did want to know.

"Why did you take part in Project V, and why did your bosses do the same?" I asked.

"I guess I have no choice but to tell you the truth." Gognitti said with anger. "Vladimir and I were the only two that actually wanted to take part of it. Punchinello and Lupino wanted nothing to do with it but with the amount of power that Horne had they had no choice."

"Why did you want to take part in it so bad?"

"Because it was my chance to get back at Punchinello and Lupino, I figured I would drug them both and kill them off cleanly. However, Lupino was such a dumbass he already loaded himself up with Valkyr and was easily kill by you. Punchinello's head grew too big for him to even carry on his shoulders. He thought with Horne on his side he was the most powerful force in New York, Horne definitely put it end to that." Then Gognitti paused and looked at me suspiciously. "I have to ask you Payne. That night when you shot me and had me cornered. Why didn't you shoot me?"

"You were nothing when compared to Lupino and Punchinello."

"I bet you regret that one don't you?"

I stood up and walked out. It was bad enough when it was just me thinking about my past but to have one of my enemies remind me was even worse. I just walked out of the prison and got into my car. There was nothing for me to do here. I drove up to the gate so the security guards could let me out but the gate was already opened. I stopped at the gate and got out. When I went to the security booth both guards were dead. Mona was at the prison. I got back in my car and speeded back to Vinnie's area.

When I got there the security door had been opened. I walked in and went looking for Mona. The guards didn't stand a chance, all ten of them laid in line on the floor. Luck was on my side though; the security cams and televisions were still up and running. I would be able to see where Mona was. Mona was literally only feet away from Gognitti's cell I had to hurry. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could. Gognitti was on the fourth floor. When I got there. Gognitti was begging for mercy.

"No, haven't I suffered enough. I'm behind bars for life. Wouldn't you rather have me suffer behind bars then just to end it now? PLEASE!!" There was no way I letting Mona get her way. If Gognitti was killed the first person Bravura would blame would be me.

"You wish." Mona said. Right when she looked like she was going to pull the trigger, I stepped in.

"Mona Stop!" Mona turned around with anger gleaming in her eyes.

"Why are you here?" She asked

"I was here for questioning. What were you thinking showing up here?" I asked. I was getting angry.

"What were you thinking interfering with my business? Leave Max, this doesn't concern you." I grab Mona's arm and just as quickly she down and grabbed another gun with her other hand and aimed at me. BAM!

A bullet when it is shot at you always travel in slow motion. You don't even here the sound of it because you're too busy watching your life flash before your eyes.

"AHH!!" The bullet hit me right in the shoulder. The pain was so intense I fell to the ground and passed out.

My dream was a short one. In it I was watching myself kissing Mona for the first time. Words couldn't express how much I regretted it now.

When I woke up I was in the back of a van. When my vision cleared I could see Mona driving. I roll over to get up and immediately jumped. The body of Vinnie Gognitti lay dead next to me.

"Max? You awake?" Mona asked.

My shoulder was killing me. She had pulled out the bullet but the pain was too much. I slowly went up front to Mona.

"I'm sorry." She said.

"Why did you do it?" I asked.

"I was angry. When I saw you there I took out some of my anger on you." She said sincerely. "I wrapped up the wound as best as I could."

"Where are we going?" I asked but she didn't answer. I didn't even bother asking again. Mona drove for miles. I kept my eyes ahead to see if I could actually make out where we were going. From the looks of it she was heading back to the city.

Finally she spoke. "We're going back to the funhouse."

"Why?" I asked immediately.

"You'll see."

My nerves through the whole drive were jumping like crazy. The pain from my shoulder no longer existed. It was drowned out by my fear of what I thought was coming next. When we got to the funhouse I was reluctant to get out of the van but it wasn't like I had a choice in the matter.

"Why did you take Gognitti's body with you?" I asked.

"Because everyone will assume he just escaped. If they had found him dead every cop in this city would be after you and me." She said. She walked to the remains of what use to be the lockers in her room. "Stand back." She flipped a switch and part of the floor began to rise. Another locker came out of the floor. When she opened it, it revealed enough guns and explosives to blow up an entire building. I could only hope that wasn't her plan. "Come on." When we stepped out of the funhouse the weather took a turn for the worse. Rain was coming down almost as hard as bullets.

We got back into the van and she floored it. Judging by the directions we were taking we were heading for Ragna Rock. However, when we got there what was left of Ragna Rock was now decimated. Mona and I stepped out of the van in horror. She looked at me in anger.

"What did you do Max!"

"I didn't do anything."

"You lie! The file was in there!" She shouted and walked back to the van.

"Mona! What file?" But as I said it she drove off and left me standing in the rain.

I could only guess that it was Bravura that ordered the decimation of the club but to completely find out I walked back to the station. When I got there Bravura looked shocked to see me.

"Payne!" He said. "Thank god your all right. The whole fiasco between you and Sax was all over the security cams at Downtown. We saw her shoot Gognitti." He said. "I'll call the nurse up to take a look at that shoulder."

Bravura and I stepped into his office and I explained what had happened at Ragna Rock while the nurse was attending to my shoulder. Bravura admitted to giving the order to destroy Ragna Rock but there was more.

"We did a full search of the remains of the building one last time before we destroyed and came across this." Bravura threw a file in front of me. I looked at it and could only assume it was the file Mona was talking about. I opened it and it was loaded with all the plans for Project V and the people who joined it. Mona crossed out the names of all the people dead. Gognitti could now be added to that list. Only one person remained but that name for some reason was anonymous.

"Any idea on who that might be?" Bravura asked.

"No." I said honestly. Almost everyone on this case was dead. John and Alfred Woden, Vinnie Gognitti, Vladimir Lem, Angelo Punchinello, and Jack Lupino were all on the list and were crossed off. The anonymous name left nothing but questions in its path but the answers were covered in fog. Then all of a sudden I finally had a clue.

"Where's Woden's file?"

"Right here my drawer, why?"

"Let me see it."

Bravura handed me the file and I opened it. Craig Woden was the only person that I could think of. He was the only member of Alfred Woden's family that had actually been mentioned in his will. Something told me he was getting more then his inheritance.

"You honestly think Craig Woden has a part in this?" Bravura asked.

"I don't know but I have find out."

I walked out of Bravura's office but Bravura followed me.

"Payne? He lives in all the way out Albany. You're not going to actually drive all that way are you?"

I looked at Bravura straight in the eyes; "I have to."

"Fine, but you better be careful."

I walked by Bravura and out of the office. I jumped in my car and took off. The weather didn't get any better as I headed to Albany. It only got worse. Wind, rain, and lightning flooded the area and didn't stop when I got to Albany. The address didn't give me any more confidence. The address was 666 Lincoln Blvd. Craig Woden was a complete polar opposite version of his cousin and uncle. He ran a small automobile business to keep him busy. Something told me there was more to him then that story. I didn't believe a word of it.

The house was nothing special when compared to John and Alfred Woden. The house was big but there was nothing suspicious about it. I drove up to the gate. Right when I drove up someone was already walking up to the gate. With the rain and lightning the image of the person walking to the gate looked haunting.

"Mr. Payne?" The voice said. The voice sounded so much like Alfred Woden.

"Yes." I responded.

"My name John Woden, follow me." Alfred Woden's nephew was so much like him it was scaring me.

"How do already know who I am?"

"My uncle always spoke about you." He said. We walked inside. The inside of the house looked almost like his cousins house but the staircase was not in the center, it was two separate stairwells at both sides of the house. While the house looked like nothing special from the outside, the inside was a different story. "So tell me Mr. Payne. What brings a man like you all the way out here from the city?"

"I came to ask you some questions?"

"Well, then ask away."

"What do you know about Vinnie Gognitti and Vladimir Lem?" I asked.

"I knew Vladimir Lem very well. He helped me get out of some financial problems a while back."

"What kind of financial problems?"

"My business was losing money. I had too many employees that I couldn't pay. Vladimir helped me out by backing me up and helping me pay my employees."

"And Vinnie Gognitti?"

"Vinnie Gognitti was nothing more then a person desperate for attention. I knew someday that his actions would soon get him killed and I'm glad to see that I was right. I felt the same for Vladimir. Yes, while he did help me through my problems he was too generous to trust."

We walked all around the house while he told me this. I was finally going to get to my final question and this was a question that I didn't feel comfortable on asking. I didn't know how he was going to react to it.

"What do you know about Project Valhalla and the Inner Circle?"

"I remember Project Valhalla very well. My uncle was trying his hardest to stop it. The inner circle were the brains trying to come up with a plan to put an end to it. Thankfully you were the answer to their prayers."

"What about Mona Sax?"

"Sax was the first one they hired to take out Horne, she went undercover as Horne's hired assassin to spy on Horne's activities." All of a sudden, I felt uncomfortable. Craig Woden knew way more then I was expecting him to know. I got out my gun while his back was turned. "Now Mr. Payne if you will follow m..." BAM!! My paranoia and emotions were getting the best of me. I couldn't trust anyone, couldn't trust Mona, and couldn't even trust myself. I was turning into something I hated.

I searched the house for a little while to see if there was anything I could find. RING! The phone began to ring. I hesitated for a little bit and finally answered.

"If this is a call for Mr. Woden, he's a little bit out of it right now." I said.

"Is this Mr. Max Payne?" I didn't recognize the voice on the other end.

"It might be, why?"

"My name is James Mason. We need to have a talk. Meet me tomorrow evening at the old Roscoe Street Station and seven p.m. don't be late."

I didn't know what to make of it but it looked like I might not have any other choice but to meet him. There was no way I was telling Bravura about any of this. I couldn't even trust him. He was trying his best to keep me away from Mona and have me further off the case so someone else could finish it. I wasn't going to stand for it anymore. I was already stuck to this case ever since I saw my wife dead on our bed and I wasn't turning back at this point.

I drove back to the city, back to my apartment to get some rest. I hadn't slept much in days. Even with all the stress, I was so tired that it didn't matter. I spent all of the drive thinking about Craig Woden. While I had no regrets about killing him, I found it a little suspicious that he knew so much that moments after killing him that his phone would ring and it would be for me. Someone was keeping a close eye on me, which meant that I had to be careful about my every move.

When I got back to my apartment building, it was around six a.m. I went to my phone to see if there was any message. Two messages flashed on my machine.

"_You have two new messages"_

"Payne, Bravura here. Look I didn't want to do this over the phone, I wanted to tell you before you left for Craig Woden's house but I hesitated too much. I'm demoting you Payne. I'm not firing you I won't go that far. However, you are no longer an active police officer or detective. You are on a permanent desk job. I know the case is still going but I can't risk sending you out there. I'm sending someone else on the case. I'm sorry Payne, I had no other choice."

"_You have one new message."_

"Max are you there." It was Mona. "You're in danger Max, someone's been spying on you for several days. I tried to stop him but he keeps moving and I can't keep track of him. You need to be careful."

Bravura's message was no surprise but Mona had me wondering about James Mason. For some reason, it made me even more anxious to meet him. I couldn't go back to the station because I would be stuck to a desk job. I wasn't going back until this case was totally over.

After a couple of hours of rest I headed out for Roscoe Street Station. The historic station had become a breeding ground for the homeless and gangster side of New York. Not even the most brainless person got off at Roscoe Street Station. When I got to that part of town, there was nothing but gangsters flooding the streets. I was the only car on the road in the area and everyone looked at me like I was fresh meat. Cops were not generally welcomed in this part of New York but anyone who would try and mess with me would have a bullet tattooed to their heads.

I got out of my car and walked over to the subway station. There were no guards at the subway. None of them had the guts to actually look after the place. I walked down the main hall of the subway, which lead to the train. I could only hope that this wasn't a set up.

"Mr. Payne?" A voice said behind me.

I turned around to see what looked to be a very rich man. Dressed like someone out of a mafia movie. "You must be Mason?"

"Please, call me James." We walked together and he began to tell me why he wanted to meet me. "I am the former partner to Mr. Alfred Woden, both he and I created the Inner Circle. However, due to our disagreements on the direction we were taking the circle in led to our separation. I went on my own, taking smaller missions."

"So what do you want from me?" I asked.

"I want to help you." He replied. "I know Alfred did his best to help you and I know he died trying. So I am here to finish what he had started. As you fully well know there is still someone else on the list for the Project Valhalla case."

"Who is he?" I asked

"Well he is actually a she." I didn't like where this going. "The person you are looking for is a woman named Mona Sax, she use to work for Alfred and is an assassin. Do you know her?"

"I might." Apparently Mason didn't know anything about the relationship I had with Mona and I wasn't about to admit it.

"Once she is out of the picture, your work will be finished and you will be able to move on with your life." He said as he began to walk away. "This is as far as I will take you with my help. This rest is up to you. Good luck Mr. Payne. Maybe we will see each other down the road someday."

I walked back to my car and drove off. My love for Mona was undeniable but I wanted this case over, and I wanted over permanently this time. I just didn't know if I had it in me to actually kill her. Everyone had told me never to trust her and in the end they were all right.

I drove back to my apartment. I needed time to sit and think about things. When I got back to the apartment building cop cars were surrounding it. Bravura stood outside and when he saw me pull up he ran to my car.

"Payne! Where the hell have been. We've been trying to get in touch with you." He said.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Your apartment room was broken into. One of your neighbors called us and we rushed down."

I ran up to my apartment. Bravura followed me. Cops were already in the room. As soon as I walked in to my living room I saw a huge V symbol in the middle of my living room. Mona had left a sign of her passage. I wasn't about to tell Bravura that it was her that left it. I had time no time to waste. I had to find Mona now. I ran out of the room.

"Payne, we're you going? PAYNE!" Bravura followed me to my car.

"I know who did this." I said.

"Let us handle it. Just give me the name." He said, but I was already in my car. I started it and drove off.

**CHAPTER 10: BACKSTABBING BASTARD**

The funhouse was the only place I figured Mona would be. There was nowhere else for her to go. I had to corner her and get her to admit what she was doing before I could actually do anything. When I got to the funhouse I tried my best to stall, wandering around before I actually headed up to Mona's apartment.

When I got to her apartment I could hear Mona speaking to someone. I peaked over to see her on a cell phone.

"Listen, I can't do this anymore." She said. "I've been spying on him for day and where ever he goes cops are sure to follow. It's too much pressure. Look I call you back in a few hours to update you on what's going on." She hung up the phone.

"Spying on who?" I asked, scaring Mona.

"Max? What are you doing here?"

"Who were you just talking to?"

"Max, you don't understand."

"Answer the question!" I was getting mad. Mona refused to speak after that. I was going to have to make. I took out my gun and pointed it directly at her head.

"Max, I can't tell you." She began to tear up. "If I tell you then they will kill me."

"Whose they?"

"I can't say." She said.

"Mona I have to know. If you were hired for this I need to know who hired you." Mona walked away and out of the room. I followed her. "Mona?" I followed her outside to where her van was.

"Max, I wish I could tell you but I just can't." She said as she started to get into the van. But knowing you as well as I do Max, you'll find out anyways." She started the van.

"MONA WAIT!" But she drove off. I ran back to my car. I had to catch her. I didn't have a lot of time, not enough time to think about what I was doing. When I drove off I followed the same path that Mona had taken. It didn't take me long to catch up to her van but I kept a safe distance and with no back window to the van it would be hard for her to see me in the first place. The weather was on my side, the rain kept me from being the slightest bit recognizable. This trip was lasting a lot longer then I would have liked but the way we were going didn't promise anything good either. Mona drove all the way back to Alfred Woden's mansion. When she got out of her van someone had opened the door for her. From the angle I was sitting at I couldn't tell who opened it.

I had to find another way in and stay hidden in the shadows. Mona was connected to someone unknown. That certain unknown was about to be known really soon. I would dare anyone to try and stop me at this point. There weren't many entrances to the manor. There was only a front, side and back door to this unbelievably large house. I figured the backdoor would be a great place to start. I didn't have to walk far until I had to hide. Guards were at all the doors.

The guards were heavily armed and outnumbered me ten-to-one. I had to divert their attention somehow. I took out my gun. The guards were watching every angle of the house. This wasn't going to be easy. I hid behind the bushes and aimed my guns at one of the guards at the side door. I had only one shot. I couldn't mess it up. BAM! I fired and the bullet hit one of the guards in the shoulder.

"Intruder on the premises!" One of the guards shouted. The two guards from the backdoor came around.

"Who was it?" One of them said.

"I don't know but the shot came from that direction." I didn't have a second to lose. I took off for the back. "There he is!! Open Fire!" BAM, BAM, BAM. Bullets kept flying at me. They chased all the way to the backdoor but I managed to close it before they could get in. "Intruder in the house, repeat, intruder in the house!" One of the guards said, which only meant that there were more of them in house.

The guards took the positions back outside, blocking my ways out of the house. It didn't take long to be greeted by guards. I heard them coming up the hall.

"I'll deal with him." One of them said. He turned the corner to see me. "Found him!" He aimed his gun and fired as I jumped behind one of the walls. "He's in here!" I heard him yell. All of a sudden I heard several footsteps of even more guards. With only one gun and only nine bullets left I would truly have to be precise with my shots.

I began to run around the corner to shoot. BAM, BAM. I was forced back by several bullets again, this time I had to lay down as several bullets went through the wall. CLICK! Their guns echoed an empty sound, now it was my turn. I ran around the corner and fired like there was no tomorrow. All of them dropped. When I was done with them I went looking for Mona.

I opened the next door only to be greeted by over a dozen guards. "Freeze!" With no wall to protect this time I was outgunned. One of the guards walked behind me and handcuffed me. Another guard got face to face with me. "Not so tough now are you?" He wound up and CRACK punched me right in the stomach and knocked the air out of me. It wasn't the worst feeling I had ever felt but it was a sign that things were no longer in my favor.

"Take him to the boss!" One of them said. I was then led into what use to be Woden's office. When the door opened Mona was sitting in one of the chairs, however, no one else was there.

"Max?" Mona looked surprised to see me. "You shouldn't be here." She said but as she said it the elevator in Woden's office opened to reveal Gary Norton. I wasn't all too surprised but another man came out. Someone who I would have expected to be the last person apart it, Chief Jim Bravura.

My anger had reached its peak. If guards didn't surround me I would have snapped those cuffs myself and would have killed Bravura with my own two fists. He had made a fool out of me. Fooling me into trusting him. The man that I thought was the only person I could trust was nothing more then a backstabbing bastard.

"What are you here for Payne?" He asked. "I tried, really I did, I tried to keep you out of it but you were stubborn. You thought no one else could handle this case." Bravura looked at me with the most evil stare he had ever given me. "Why do refuse to let go! Payne, I tried to help you and yet you go against my orders."

I ignored all of his words. "Why are you apart of this?" I asked. "If you were trying to help and cared so much. Why didn't you tell me you working for it all along?"

"I guess hoping, hoping that you would for once follow my orders. Stay behind a desk and out of the way!" The angered looked turned into an almost sad look. "Payne, there was no reason to tell you. While I am apart of this, I am still the boss of many of those innocent cops out there, which is why I tried to keep them out of it as well. You are one of my cops and I care about your well being."

I stood up as Norton signaled the guards away. I didn't want to listen to this bullshit from Bravura. He thought he could bring up other things to make himself look innocent but all he was doing was making him even more welcomed to a bullet in the head.

"If you cared so much." I said. "If you were a real cop. You would have killed the man standing next to you, instead of helping him. You're not a real cop; you are nothing but a worthless lying bastard who cares nothing for anyone but himself. You can rot in hell for all I care."

"Payne, you don't understand."

"I think understand quite well." I said and then I sat back down looking away from Bravura.

"Forget it Jim, we have other things to attend to." Gary said. "Guards! Take Mr. Payne to his new home."

The next thing I knew I was dragged back out of the room. Mona sat in silence, she hardly even stared me as we left the room. They took me down to the basement where there were cells.

"Open the door and hold him while I un-cuff him." The guard opened the cell door and then held me while they undid the handcuffs. I couldn't hesitate. WHACK! I punched one of the guards in the balls. I wasn't in a state of mind to fight fair. WHACK! I punched the other guard. When I got his gun and his knife. I stabbed both of them with the knife. I needed to be silent. But not even silence helped me.

"Impressive!" I heard Norton's voice and I looked to right to see a loudspeaker in the corner room, along with a security cam. "You are definitely a fighter Max Payne but how do you think will against my men. There are ten of them and only one of you. Do you really think you a chance."

I aimed my gun right at the camera and blew the camera away. Hopefully Norton understood my message.

"OO! I'm so scared Max." He said in a sarcastic tone. "But if you want a fight you've got it. You have ten men to pass, are you up for the challenge?"

The sound of footsteps rattled the room. Norton's men were only a few seconds away from me. There was only one way out of the room.

"We're outside the cell area now." I heard one of them say.

"Very good, take care of him." Norton said on the other line.

"You heard him men, let's go." I stood my ground, waiting to fire.

SMASH!

The door almost flew off of its hinges with the force of the kick. I wasted no time. BAM! BAM! BAM! Three went down but two more still stood and started shooting. I was forced behind a bunch of flimsy boxes that couldn't protect me at all. CLICK! One of the guards was reloading. This was my only chance I would have to shoot quick to keep the other guard from shooting. I jumped from the boxes and fired like no tomorrow. BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! They went down like bricks. I grabbed their guns and headed out. Five down, five more to go.

Norton's men were not the most intelligent. They were nothing more then thugs hired off the streets from the looks of it. They were just hired to kill and that was all they knew. I went further up the stairs. When I got to the main floor, the last remaining guards covered Woden's office. Their intelligence showed, they were staring at everything but the door I came out of.

However, one bit of noise would turn five guns towards me in an instance, so it wasn't all in my favor. Sadly, I had no choice but to make noise with gunshots because I couldn't just go around them. I slowly raised my gun to one of the guard's heads. The guard closest was actually standing right next to Woden's office door. BAM! I managed a head shot but the other four turned immediately. BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM... Bullets flew like crazy and I ran for it. I ducked into a closet.

"Is he dead?" Norton said over the radio.

"No sir, he's still alive." One of the guards said.

"WHAT!!" Norton sounded pissed. "You mean to tell me that after all that gunfire you haven't kill him! If he is not dead in the next minute you are all fired!"

With that said they all ran to where I was. When they got close I took a huge chance. I jumped around the corner and just fired aimlessly. BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! All went down but one bullet grazed my arm.

But when it seemed like it was over, it wasn't. I felt a gun touching the back of my head.

"I'm sorry Payne." It was Bravura. "Come with me."

Bravura took me by the arm and took me back to Woden's office. When we got there Mona was still sitting in the same chair. I was placed in the seat next to hers.

"You are truly amazing Max Payne." Norton said while sitting in Woden's chair. "But it is over despite your heroic effort." He got up and walked towards Mona. "As for you Ms. Sax, despite numerous attempts you failed to follow orders. Instead you continued a pointless battle with Vinnie Gognitti. I trusted you to take care of Payne but instead. I promised you freedom and yet you wouldn't take it."

"Freedom?" I interrupted.

"Oh yes, I'm sure you would love to hear this." He said with a smile. "Your wonderful love Mona joined me due to a lucrative offer and a promise to clear her record. However, her love for you is so great she went the opposite direction." He then turned around to face Mona again. "I'm going to give you one more chance. Right here, right now, kill Payne and I will pay you and clean your entire record. You have my word."

Mona stood up and stared into the ceiling for a minute, thinking about her decision. She walked up to me, took out her gun and held it towards me. "Nothing beats freedom Max." She said. She started the pull the trigger. I stared directly at the gun, waiting to see the bullet fly out. But all of sudden the gun turned. She turned the gun completely around and pointed it to herself. "Now I am free." BAM!! In a slow motion second she fell and I jumped out of my seat to catch her.

There was no faking, no coming back. It made sense that the only person who could kill her was herself. I could hardly breath I was too stunned but what I had just witnessed. I could do was star at the bullet in her head. It was like the bullet was talking to me.

"Oh how sad." Norton said sarcastically. "Well, I can't complain, one down, one to go." He took out a gun and immediately pointed it at me.

"That's enough." All of sudden Bravura took out his gun and pointed it at Norton.

"Jim, you can't be serious." Norton said.

"This has gone too far."

Norton turned around. "There is no such thing. Imagine how much damage we could do, how much money we could get. Way more then a cops sleazy pay."

While those two were fighting I went for Mona's gun.

"I only want what was promised to me, nothing more."

"And you shall get it as soon as we are done with poor Max here."

"Very we..." BAM! All of sudden a gunshot went off and Bravura fell straight done. Standing behind him was another one of Norton's guards; he had come out of a secret passage in the office.

"You'll get what you have coming to you in hell." Norton said.

Norton turned around to look at me but I beat him to the punch. I already stood with Mona's gun, pointing it at Norton. "Drop your weapon." I told the guard. He hesitated.

"Do it." Norton said. "You're tough Max, I'll give you that but you're also foolish. So many years after you're victory over Horne and yet you still feel you have to finish this case." Norton walked closer to me. "This case is over, at least it is for you." All of a sudden the doors to office were kicked open and two guards came in. The guard already in the room picked up his gun. I jumped back and started firing. Two guards went down but while the other was picking up his gun I ran and pushed him. He went flying out the window. Judging by the fall, I knew he was dead. When I turned around Norton was gone.

When I looked to my right I saw a door closing in the floor. Norton went out a secret panel. I followed him down. The passage led straight to the sewers of the city.

**CHAPTER 11: THE ROAD TO FORGIVING**

The sewers were nothing more then the rotten basement of New York. The stench of gas and toxic waste filled the air. Green mist filled the air making everything was discolored, much like my nightmares. This was the perfect place to settle any score, no body would be found.

"You know Max." Norton's voice came from a distance. "I find it kind of funny, I try to kill you with multiple men and yet it is still one-on-one. How do you do it? Hahaha." All of sudden the voice got closer and out of one of the other walkways came Norton. We were face-to-face once again. "I can't lie Max, I am impressed." We both stood with our guns facing down. "What are you waiting for? Shoot me. Don't tell the great Max Payne is hesitant. The man that everyone said could kill any enemy that got in his way. Aren't I an enemy?"

For the first time in a long time, I had no idea what to do. The gun sat there at my side but yet I couldn't find the strength to hold it up and shoot. In the end, I had nothing left. Mona was the final piece that held my life together. That piece was gone, and I was alone. I wanted to die.

Norton held up his gun at my head. I closed my eyes and waited. BAM! I heard the shot but for some reason, I didn't feel anything. I opened my eyes to see Norton, staring at me with wide eyes and fall straight into toxic waters of the sewer. Standing behind him was Stacy Myers. However, for the first time ever, I was disappointed that I was saved.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, not even thanking her.

"I trailed you here."

"If you trailed me here, why did you wait so long to help?"

"I guess I was a little hesitant after I saw Bravura working for Norton."

"Get out of here, I don't want you to get hurt."

"Oh please Max, will you stop playing tough cop. You needed all the help you can get." She was right, I knew I would have been dead if it wasn't for her, my anger was finally almost gone.

"Fine." We climbed up the nearest ladder to go up to the streets. "But don't tell anyone." But as I opened to sewer and climbed out, several cop cars surrounded the sewer. Almost all the cops and detectives stood around me.

"Too late Max." She said. "We are all in this together." She walked over to one of the officers and he gave her a file. "I know you think this case is over but we have one man out there that seems to making a lot of noise by continuing Norton's work.

"Any name?" I asked

"No, all we have is possible hiding location from a couple of locals."

"What are we waiting for? Lets get this asshole, I want this ended now."

We took off; several cop cars followed me to the building that our suspect was supposedly hiding in. 122 3rd Street, Manhattan. This was not the place where I expected a criminal. The address and the location sounded a complete. Nevertheless we drove there with sirens on.

The building was an old bank hall that cops knew very well, it was robbed several times. The owner of the bank changed locations, moved closer to one of our police stations. But he still kept this bank, it though it wasn't operating and there wasn't any power, all the furniture and computers were still inside.

"Wait for me here, I'll signal if I need help." I said to Stacy.

"Max, we should both..."

"No arguing, I need you out here."

"Alright." She said with concern in her voice. I walked up the steps to go in. I entered through the door carefully. SLAM!! But as I entered the door behind me, I turned to open but the locks clicked into place. Someone had turned on the power to the building. On the other end, Stacy banged on the door. "Max! What's going on?"

"Stay out there, I'll let you know when there is trouble." They could easily break into a window and help me but I didn't want help. Someone obviously wanted me personally and I wasn't going to chase him or her off with the sound of reinforcements. I looked around the building. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the shadow of a person lurking around upstairs. I moved slowly up the stairs and headed towards the office. When I got there, I noticed that there was someone sitting at the desk. I walked in, my gun pointing at the chair.

"The flesh of falling angels." I didn't like the tone of the voice, that voice had been stuck in my head for years. Then she turned around, Nicole Horne, grinning from ear to ear. Her face was scarred and almost looked deformed. Countless burn scars on her face and neck. "Such a strange phrase but I seem to be using it more often, thanks to you."

Suddenly all my nightmares seemed to be coming true. All of this was a maze, a blood maze that only led to my guilt and my fate. I don't know how Horne had survived and I wasn't too anxious to ask her why. But she was anxious to tell me.

"How does it feel to be outsmarted Mr. Payne?" The grin never left her face. "One of my men managed to pull me out. While I had survived, it came with a price." Horne came out from behind the desk but I soon found out that the chair she was in was a motorized wheelchair. When she came out from behind the desk, I soon found out that both her legs and her right arm were gone. "You did this to me. Believe me when I found out that I had to lose my legs and arm, I didn't want to live but the thought of payback sounded so sweet."

She rolled around me. I didn't move an inch; I was in too much shock to move. "I had one of the most successful businesses in the world." She continued. "I had everything and then one night you came along and ruined everything." She finally stopped the chair and was right in front of me. "And yet so many years later, you are still on the hunt, out for redemption. Well guess what, so am I and it looks like I have won the battle finally and will get the last laugh." All of a sudden hidden doors from the sides of the room opened, and several of her men came and grabbed a hold of me. I was surrounded, no chance of fighting back. BANG!! The front door to the bank flew opened. Stacy had gotten sick of waiting. "You two take him downstairs. The rest of you hold off the cops."

"Yes ma'am." The two men who had a hold of me took me to one of the hidden passages, I didn't know where it led to but it certainly wasn't promising. "Tie him to the chair." One of the other men ordered. I was forced into the chair and they tied my hands to it. DING!! I quickly turned my head to see an elevator door on the right side of me, it opened and Horne rolled out.

"I bet this wasn't what you were expecting Mr. Payne." She rolled in front of me with a smirk on her face. "There are so many things I would love to do to you. But one thing I'm looking forward to is to here you beg for your life."

She was doing nothing but playing mind games, I had been around long enough to tell. I haven't met a murderer yet that hasn't said the same thing. They were nothing more then words. Words that are meant to scare you so you begin to beg before they even attempt to do anything. They always want to here the words; they thrive to hear them.

This was the true belly of the beast, a place where time doesn't matter anymore. You're swallowed whole by your past and your guilt. Survival is your main motivation, pushing you on. If you can conquer the beast, then you've already won. I had met the beast before and now I was facing it again.

This is what I see. Horne's burnt up face, with a grin that made her look like Satan himself. The thought that she might actually kill me brought so much joy to her, and in a lot of ways I understood that joy. In many ways our missions were the exact same, revenge.

"All right our mission is done here gentlemen, let's go." All of sudden they all gathered around on the left side of the room. Horne opened a secret door hidden on the floor. "Goodbye Mr. Payne." Two of her men came exited out of the elevator with gas cans in their hands. They set them down right next to me and left through the passage as Horne stood in front of me holding a gun. "See you in hell!!" She aimed and fired, BAM!! The gas cans exploded, the force of it sent me flying towards the wall. The last thing I saw before I passed out was burning flames heading straight towards.

When I started to awake, I heard several distant voices coming from all sides of me. "He's finally responding. He has multiple burns and possible internal bleeding. Lets move it people, now!" It was only a matter of seconds before I blacked out again.

When I woke up, lying in a hospital bed attached to wires was the last place I thought I'd end up in. I had heard in dreams you don't feel. How I wished I were dreaming right then and there. I sat up and looked around. I had to get out and find Horne; there was no alternative at this point. I got out of the bed and dressed fast.

"Going somewhere?" I looked over and saw Stacy at the door.

"Get out of my way." I wasn't listening to her version of reason; I wasn't in the right state-of-mind for it.

"You need to stay here until you're better. Listen, I know how you..."

"NO YOU DON'T!!" I had gone over the edge. "You don't understand. I've had to go through this for years and every time I think it's over it only gets worse." All of a sudden my anger was taking me to places that I didn't want to go to. "I've let you and Bravura cut me off from the case, trying to separate me from the case that will end it all.

MOVE!!" She stood her ground but I wasn't going to let her. Out of pure anger, I saw myself grab her the neck and shove her into the wall. Her back hit the wall and she slid to the ground. I walked away with no sympathy, no remorse, and no regrets of what I had just done.

When I managed to get out of the hospital I walked as far away from it as I could. My actions most likely meant that I no longer had the rest of the police on my side. I had made the ultimate mistake; the only problem was I could bring myself to see it. I walked for what seemed like forever, when in reality it was only a couple minutes.

I walked a little further but was stopped in my tracks. A figure was standing at the end of the block. I couldn't make out who it was from a distance. All of a sudden he or she started running and I quickly followed. I started to slowly catch up but whoever it was turned into the nearest building. I went into the building but saw no one. The building was huge, 8 stories high and full of rooms. This person could have been anywhere. I wasn't about to knock down doors because I didn't want to bother innocent people. I found the stares and began to head up, however, the closer I got to the next floor the more I heard someone's voice. When I finally reached the floor I was able to hear it clearly.

"He followed me here, he's somewhere in the building." Someone said, but the person he was talking to finally spoke up.

"Good, we need to find him. We'll receive a lot of money if we take him to Horne."

I began to back away. I figured the farther away I got from the building, the better. No such luck, as soon as I started backing away I bumped into two massive guys. Next thing I knew, I was pushed so hard I knocked the door open and fell into the room.

"Where was he?" Someone said.

"Outside the room boss." My vision was slightly blurred from the impact but it was slowly coming back. I looked around the room. The room was filled with mobsters. Judging by the looks of the things this wasn't going to end well for me.

Before I could even open my mouth I was grabbed by the back of my jacket and pulled to my feet.

"So the great Max Payne. Nice to meet you."

"Who are you?"

"We'll get to that later but first, can I offer you something to drink?"

"No thanks." I was trying to play tough cop but with these conditions, it probably wasn't a good idea.

"Tony, make Mr. Payne a little bit more comfortable." After he said that I was shoved into the chair in front of me. "I have to honest Mr. Payne. For someone of your reputation I was expecting someone a little bigger. Tell me, how did someone like you, kill some of the toughest mafia members in New York." He started to laugh, apparently in his eyes I didn't look like the violent type. If he continued to piss me off anymore he would soon find out how.

"What are we going to do with him?" One of the other men said.

"We have to leave him alive. So make him as comfortable as possible, he should enjoy his last moments on earth." He stared at me with an almost psychotic look, the kind of look that would make even the toughest person crumble. "Can I get you something to drink Mr. Payne?" I wasn't about to answer. "Very well then."


	2. Chapter 2

"Boss!" One of his men came running in fast, so fast that he was almost out of breath.

"What is it?"

"He's here in the building right now."

"Shit, he'll ruin everything. Once he sees him here, he'll kill him himself." All of a sudden he looked nervous. "Take him out to the balcony, I'll try to get him out of here as soon as I can."

I was grabbed by the arm and pulls outside to the balcony. He shut the curtain. There was dead silence until whoever it was had come into the apartment. I could hear the conversation through the door.

"What wrong with you Rob?" I had finally learned the boss's first name but whomever it was that was talking I couldn't recognize by his voice. "You look a little nervous to see me today."

"Not at all sir, just a little surprised to see you here. We had no prior notice that you would be here tonight."

"Oh you shouldn't be surprised at all, traitor." There was a stunned.

"I am not a traitor."

"Really, so you don't find going behind my back to help that old hag."

"I don't find helping Horne to be betrayal."

"She is not to be trusted. She sent the load of us to find that asshole Max Payne and what does that do, it got many of us killed."

"You listen to me, if she wants to find Payne, she will have to do it on her own. Some have already lost their lives in the last 72 hours because of her and I'll be damned if we're going to lose anymore." There was another few seconds of silence. "I know you've already got men out there searching for him, call them back."

"Yes sir." He said, sounding almost helpless in the matter. Whoever it was sounded like he was leaving and saw this as my chance while all of the focus from the people inside were not on me. I stepped on the foot of one of them men holding me, which loosened his grip and with my free hand threw the other one into him. I had only a couple seconds to think. I saw the dumpster below, which was about two stories down. I risked my life and jumped. "Get him!!" I heard one of the men say after I jumped.

I had a soft landing on top of all the trash bags. I quickly got up and ran for it. I ran for so long and so far that I was sure I had lost them all. But judging by where I was, I was lost myself. As I stopped to catch my breath, today's newspaper was on a stand across from me.

It didn't take long for my actions back at the hospital to take effect. Stacy had put a wanted label on me that was so huge that it not only filled the front page but also extended to the next one. The fact that she was able to put this in the paper only hours after it happened, told me she already had cops on the hunt after I had actually left the hospital. If she had known better she would have stayed out of the way because it would wind up getting many cops killed with Horne also looking for me. With no allies I had to find Horne on my own without her men or the police stopping me before I got to her.

**CHAPTER 12: A MESS OF FLAMES**

The moon was full and shined over the dark city. For some reason from my eyes the lights of the city were all off and all I saw was the stars and the road ahead of me. I was running on pure instinct at this point. My first stop was Aesir headquarters. I knew Horne wasn't going to hesitate to start. The police had the arrogance to think that they had already cleared out the Aesir building, but I knew better. The police had given up on the site several hours ago. Horne and her men would surely find a way in undetected. With no car it took me almost an hour to get there. To my surprise, there wasn't a single cop in site during the entire walk there.

Vans were parked outside the building. They definitely weren't S.W.A.T. vans. I was very hesitant to walk any closer to the building. With all of the windows, a sniper could easily be lying in wait of my arrival. Horne had to have known that I had gotten lose and was on my way for her. I walked a little closer to the building and headed for the vans parked outside the building. They were still running but no one was in them. Looks they were going to try to make a clean break after they were done. I wasn't going to allow that. I opened the back of one of the vans and saw nothing but guns and ammunition. I loaded up with what I could carry but I knew it wasn't going to be enough to get through all her men but it would definitely get through most of them. I checked the other vans but nothing one was in them. I headed in.

There was no one in sight on the first floor I had to head up. The building was at a scary silence. The ongoing cars on the outside were muted by the thick glass windows of the building. When I got a few floors higher I could finally hear sound from the outside because of the damage caused to the building earlier. I had reached the tenth floor and still found nobody.

RING RING!!

A phone rang in one of the offices next to me. I don't know what made me want to answer it. I picked it up.

"Hello Mr. Payne."The sound of Hornes voice came though and I knew right then and there that I had walked into a trap. "I just wanted this final moment to say goodbye." Then all of a sudden a clock appeared on the phone counting down from twenty. "It's been a pleasure." She hung up and I was off. I ran as fast as ever down the stairs but I wasn't even to the second floor when it went off. BANG!!!!!! The bomb was located on top of the building the explosion was so huge that it caused the top of the building to collaspe causing the rest of the building to start collasping. I had managed to get to the first floor and ran like hell. I made it outside. The sound of the building collasping was unbelievably loud and the dust and dirt in the air made it hard to see. I tried to run farther but lack of clean air was getting the best of me. I didn't know how far I had gotten before I completely passed out on the ground.

I woke up to the sound of doctors, policemen, and firefighters who had all shown up to the scene. When I finally opened my eyes I saw Myers standing right in front of me. I wasn't badly hurt, just a little coughing. It wasn't enough to kill me.

"I'm sorry to do this Payne but you're under arrest."

"I don't understand why."

"Assaulting a police officer."

"You can't fool me with that bullshit Stacy."

"It's not bullshit if it's true."

I was too angry to argue with her again. I let her handcuff me and stick me in one of the jail cells. I sat for about an hour befor Myers showed her face. I didn't make eye contact with her at first.

"I tried so hard to help you Max but you just had to strike out on your own." I didn't reply. "I don't understand why are you doing this."

I finally turned my head to look at her. "Do you know what it is like to hear your wife scream before she is about to get murdered?" She didn't answer. "How about hearing your baby cry before being silenced by a bullet." Again, no answer from her. "And then have the person you currently love shoot herself in the head. And this all starts because of one damn drug, one damn dealer. There are thousands of dealers in this city and one chose to ruin my life and that person is surprisingly still alive and you of all people think that I'm going to stand back and forget about it."

She just looked at me in shock at what she had just heard. She stared at little bit longer and then reached into her pocket and pulled out the keys to the cell and let me out.

"Go" She said, looking like she was holding back tears. "If this is what you feel like you have to do then do it, but you are on your own."

"I always have been alone." I walked back to the door and left. When I got to the street, I took my mind off of what had just happened and got back to business. I had only one place left to go. Since Aesir Headquarters was gone, all that was left was Aesir in Times Square. I took the subway. To my relief the subway was completely deserted, which was good, gave me enough quiet to think of a game plan.

When I got to Times Square, it was in a stunned silence. Thousands of people were watching the huge Televisions sets above, listening to the story about Aesir Headquarters. The Aesir building was surrounded by news vans, all wanting to Aesir's side to the story. I managed to get passed them and headed in. I was quickly stopped in my tracks.

"Hey, hey, hey! You are not allowed even near this building." I was greeted by Jason Williams, Aesir's big time attorney. We had a history and it wasn't a good one. We always met in courtrooms with me testifying against Aesir every time the company got into trouble. He obviously didn't like seeing me.

"How about treating an old friend with respect?"

"I don't know what you're here for Payne; in fact, I don't even want to know why you're here."

I grabbed him by his coat, which caused security to move closer. "I think you know exactly why I'm here. I almost got killed early tonight in that damn headquarters and I know who caused, now where is she at?"

"You think for a second I'm going to tell you?" Still holding him by the coat, I threw him against the wall. Security made their move but he signaled them to stop. He obviously didn't want to start an uproar with news vans and cameras everywhere.

"You better tell me. I've been through hell these last few days, now you tell or I'm going to leave you in so much pain, you're going to be begging to tell me."

"Alright! Alright! I'll talk but you have to promise not tell anyone I told."

I took my elbow and starting mashing his face into the wall. "I'm not in the mood to negotiate after what I been through and if you want to live to see your children tomorrow you'll tell me."

"Fine! She's been hiding at Aesir Headquarters."

"Aesir Headquarters is destroyed, tell me the truth!"

"I'm not lying, she's under the building." I let go of him to let him speak. "Have you ever wondered why cops never found the drug Valkyr in the Aesir building when they searched it? All the machines that made Valkyr were in a secret location hidden under the building. Even with the building gone, the cops won't find it.

"How do I get in?"

"There's a door under one of the sidewalk cement blocks, you can lift it up and you'll see the door."

I looked at one of the security guards. "Tell one of your guards to give them his guns."Out of fear he signaled over one of his guards and told him to hand me all of his guns. I finally let Jason go. "You better be telling the truth or else one of these bullets will your name on it."

I left out of the back door of the building; the only side of the building with no news cameras. With no mode of transportation I had to walk, but I had to walk up streets that were empty due to the amount of weapons I was carrying. To my surprise there weren't many people on the streets. The scare over Aesir had people frightened and almost everyone in New York stayed in their homes. When I got to Aesir, it was still pretty much a mess. The firefighters and police tried to clean up as much as possible in a matter of a few hours. I searched the sidewalk to see if I could find the door. I went all the around the building and when I got towards the end I kicked and one that moved. I lifted it up with all my strength and saw the door. I threw the cement block aside and opened the door. The stairs leading down seems to go on forever. I was amazed that so much was built underground. Judging by how far it looked, they built another three story's underground.

"Call down with Ms. Horne, we're are ready for testing." I looked down to see a few men working down in one of the labs down at the bottom. "Miss Horne, it is ready." One man got on his into a walkie talkie. "Ms. Horne we are ready."

Then I heard her voice. "Good, I'll be down, now if this fails as well, you won't live to do another test."

All of the men stood still nervously. "Don't worry ma'am, this one will work." Then right when he said that a door right above me opened and guards came out. I jumped into one of the darker corners and saw her and her men walking down. I wanted to jump out and kill her then but I knew better.

"Is our test subject ready?" She said very sadistically.

"Yes ma'am, she was tough to keep down but we managed to finally subdue her." After that one of the doors opened in the back of the lab and more men brought in a woman on a stretcher. After looking very closely I realized it was Stacy and she was completely unconscious.

"It was foolish of you to interfere in my business Ms. Myers. I'll make sure personally that you don't make that mistake again." Horne gave a very sadistic smile.

Although I was reluctant to get caught, I had no choice this time. I had to save Stacy.


	3. Chapter 3

I got up slowly, trying to be as silent as I could. I paid close attention to what was going on while trying to head down.

"Would you like to do the honors Ms. Horne?"

"I would be glad to." She said as if it was a birthday gift. "Please, give me my brew. It's time to straighten this one out."

One of the men turned and went to the counter opposite of where I was but this proved to bold very badly for me because there was a mirror on that counter. I went to the counter and sure enough one look in the mirror and our eyes met. He stared for second in shock and then screamed like crazy.

"PAYNE!!!PAYNE!!!" Hornes men didn't hesitate. BAM BAM BAM!!! Bullets flew everywhere. I ducked just in time. Firing at the same time didn't help them as they ran out and had to reload. I reacted fast. I got to my feet. BAM BAM BAM BAM!!! My four shots with my gun sent three of them flying back.

"GET HER OUT OF HERE." I heard Horne shout. I had to get down there. When I looked down again, I saw one of the guards pull something out of one of the pockets in his uniform. He held it up and I could see it was a grenade. I had no choice but to run up again. I ran up to the door I saw Horne come out of. I heard him throw the grenade and I dived in. BANG!!! The whole set of stairs shook. I walked out to see all of the stairs below me completely gone and lay smoking on the ground below. Horne and her men had taken off with Stacy. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could to get to the outside. I finally got there to see Horne and her men speeding away in their vans and just like that, they were gone and I had no idea where they going.

Words couldn't express my shock and utter anger over what just happened. I don't how Stacy had managed to get into the hands of Horne but I could only guess that it was an investigation that went terribly wrong. I went back to the subway. The only place I could think to go was back to Time Square; back to Aesir. When I got back to Time Square the media had not died down, in fact, it had gotten even bigger. I went into the Video Game store next door to Aesir. The building was linked to Aesir. It was a good way for me to avoid security. I walked right in. There was no one in the stoor accept for one punk kid who worked there.

"Where's the door to get into Aesir?" I pointed my gun straight at him. He put his hands up.

"The door to my right." He said fast, looking like he was going to go to tears.

"Call any cops and this will be your last night playing video games."

The door led to the only staircase located in the Aesir building. The stairs were covered with dust because no one had ever walked up them. They only went up the elevators. The sixth floor was where Jason Williams's office was. However, when I got to the sixth floor, I looked out the little window on the door to see four security guards outside the door to his office. I had no choice but to get noticed, there was no going around them. I aimed my gun through the glass at the guard closest to me BAM! I had nailed him right in the shoulder and simultaneously the rest of them turn and fired like crazy BAM BAM BAM BAM! I ducked to the side and the force of the bullets sent the door flying of its hinges and it went sailing down the stairwell.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT THERE!!" I heard Williams on one of the radios.

"It's Payne sir, he's in the building." One of the guards answered.

With him talking I jumped across the door and fired, nailing the guard with the radio and landed on the other side and out of the sights of the guards before they could fire. My beretta was out. I grabbed the shotgun. BAM BAM BAM BAM!!! But before I could get ready to fire I was forced to run further up the stairs from a mess of bullets coming through the wall from one of their machine guns. It finally stopped.

"He's definitely dead, there's no know way he survived that." One of the guards said. The voices were getting closer. They were heading my way, laughing, thinking they were going to find a dead body. I took aim and they came out. "SHIT!" BAM BAM BAM!! All three fell and I walked down and headed for Williams office. Judging by the sound coming from the guard's radio the rest of security of too busy trying to keep the press out of the building and hadn't heard what was going on. They were still requesting backup to help keep the press at bay.

I walked up to Williams's office door and with all the force I could muster; I kicked it almost completely off its hinges. But when I walked in, Williams was trying to escape through the window. I ran up to the window.

"You're not getting out that easily Jason." I shouted out the window while he walked on the ledge of the building. "All you have to do is tell me where she is and it will spare your life."

"I've told you all that I know." He said with the most sincerity. Judging by the look in his eyes something was really off. His eyes were become more and more glazed over. I looked back to his desk and saw an empty container on his desk with the Valkyr symbol on it.

"Damn it Jason, did you take that whole container?!" I asked. But right when I said it his legs collapsed and he fell forward and started to fall. "NO!!" He hit the ground with the most violent thud right in front of the press. I put my head back inside the building before the cameras could get my face and ran straight back down the stairs and left before anyone knew I was there. The employee at the video game store was still scared half to death and just stared as I left. I ran back to the subway and waited for the train.

"Not exactly what you were expecting was it?" A voice said behind me. I turned around to see James Mason walking towards me. I remained silent. "When I said kill Sax as soon as possible, I meant it. Now you are stuck in this battle."

"I've always been stuck in this battle."

"You didn't have to be." He walked closer to me until we were standing just a couple feet away from each other. "You loved her didn't you?" I gave him a look that could only mean yes. "I figured you did. I could tell when I first mentioned her name in our first conversation. Max, you can't let love interfere with you chance to live a normal life."

"It's too late for that now. Now, are you here to help me or are you just here to give me a lecture?"

He just stared as if he wanted to say something but kept stopping himself. Finally he let it out. "You want this case over or what?"

"You know I do."

"Here's the deal. You already know that Horne is part of this, now all you need to do is eliminate her and her men. Her army is very small right now; you need to kill it before she is able to add more to it."

"How do I do that?" This all seemed really ridiculous. He was giving me information that I already knew. "How do I do it if I don't even know where she is?"

"Follow me if you want to know." The old man led me back out of the subway and to his car. "Get in." I was hesitant, this could have all been a trap but in the end I had too because it was either do or die and I could only hope that the second conclusion would have no part in this mission.

We traveled for a few miles before he started talking again. "Horne has been hiding outside the city to avoid many of the police. She only had two hideouts in the city, both of which you have seen. Your friend Stacy Myers got a tip of the second location and headed straight for it, alone. Horne's men apprehended her and she is now the test subject of Horne's new version of V."

"What could be worse than the old version?"

"Everything, not only is this version ten times stronger, there are rumors that it either erases you memories or tortures you with them."

"Rumors, where exactly do you get your sources?"

"That is my business." The car finally stopped. "We are here."

We were at a shut down Pizza shop just outside the city. This part of New York was even worse than the city itself. Many of the city's crime lords and gangsters who had been run out by police lived here.

"Follow me Mr. Payne." I slowly followed and had the strangest feeling like we were being watched. When we walked into the shop, it was a torn apart. The ceiling looked like it was going to cave in and rat holes covered the walls. We walked further into the building and he led me to the door and when he opened it I couldn't believe my eyes. It led to a hidden room with nearly two dozen people in it, computers, surveillance monitors. "I would like you to meet my army."

Judging by what I saw on the monitors, they were not only watching me but Mona and Gognitti as well. "We've been keeping an eye on you for the past four months. We needed to make sure you were safe."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because you were the only one we knew of who could handle a job of this magnitude. With Gognitti and Sax out of the picture, Horne is the only target left to kill and then the war to stop Valkyr will be over." He walked up to on of the desk and pulled out a file. He handed it to me and I opened it. In it was the picture of what looked like a madman, with a killers smile. "This is Terry Johnson, one of the biggest crime bosses of the 80's. He was sent to prison for over twenty years and finally got out just a few months ago."

"What does he have to do with any of this?"

"Terry Johnson has been under Horne's wing since he got out. He is the only one who knows where Horne is." I stared eager to hear more. "We've been able to track him down since his release and know exactly where he is."

"Where?" I asked right away.

"On Trent St. the third apartment building number 2113, room number 15. He's there 24/7, never leaves the place but someone in a black Lexus has been showing up from time to time. Make sure before you go barging in that there is no one around."

I just nodded my head and headed out.

**CHAPTER 13: FIELD OF TRAGEDY **

I didn't know who this Terry Johnson was but I was more than willing to meet him under these circumstances. I was stuck walking back to the city but it was a great chance to think about how I was going to go through with this. Mason had seemed to tell me everything he knew but something told me he was leaving something out but with Horne on my mind I didn't even think about asking.

When I reached city, I walked back to the subway. I could hear several bells ringing from various churches when I got to the subway, singling that it was midnight. I hadn't slept in a while but with all of this I wasn't tired anymore. It almost took a half-an-hour to get to Trent St. from the subway but I didn't care, just as long as I got there. Trent St. was a quiet one, not the kind of place to be shooting guns in. I went straight to his apartment building and headed up the stairs. When I got to his room I didn't hesitate for a second. I knocked on the door.

Someone thin opened the door. As soon as he saw me he knew who I was. "OH NO!!" He tried to close the door on me but I beat him to it, with all my might I kicked the door and sent him flying backgrounds onto the floor. "Listen I don't know what you want but I swear that I don't know anything."

"Bad start Terry, you're already saying that when I haven't even asked any questions." I grabbed my gun, grabbed him by his shirt and pointed the gun at his face. "What do you know about Nicole Horne?"

"Nothing I swear." His eyes started to tear up.

"LIAR!!" I screamed as my anger began rising and my finger moved near the trigger. I moved the gun to his right eye "You either tell me where Horne is or the last thing you see is a bullet."

"OK OK, I'll talk just don't hurt me." I eased up a little bit and he began to calm down a little. "We've been having meetings outside the city at some mansion."

"Alfred Woden's mansion?" I asked

"No someone elses mansion someone younger and much more sadistic."

"Who?"

"I swear, none of us know his name. All we know is that Horne has been working under him since her return."

"Wait a minute; if he's in charge why you were spotted going to Horne first after you got out of prison?"

"She's second in command of our group. She's the one who decides who lives or dies in this group."

"Where can I find this so-called bosses mansion?"

"Staten Island, about a mile away from the conference house, it's the only mansion on that part of Staten Island."

"Thank you. He's going straight to hell."

Scared from the gun pointing to his head his reply was. "Whatever you say."

"And he'll meet you there."

"What? NO…." BANG!!

There was no sense on keeping any of these punks alive and judging by the empty containers in his apartment he would have died off of Valkyr anyways. I was surprised no one else heard the gunshot. I walked out of the building with more than enough to go on. I took the subway again, but this time all the way to the bridge to get me to Staten Island. I walked across the bridge trying to come up with a plan. It had just passed one A.M. there were hardly any cars in the street on Staten Island at this time. When I walked past the Conference House, my stomach began to turn and my nerves were actually shaky. I didn't know who this guy was and I didn't know what he was capable of. Since Horne was actually working for him, he could have been ten times more dangerous.

I finally got to the mansion. Johnson was right, it wasn't hard to miss, it was the only mansion on the whole block. There were several cars in the driveway, which meant something was going on. I began to walk around to the back. BANG! I was stopped in my tracks by a gunshot that landed right at my feet. There was a sniper on the roof. I ran behind the nearest tree. I peaked around the tree to see if I could spot him without being seen. I could actually see him lying down on the roof. I got out my berretta and turned around as quick as I could and began firing. BANG, BANG, BANG!!! The gunshots forced him crawl out of sight and I ran for it. I ran to the nearest door, opened and slammed it shut.

"FREEZE!" but my luck ran out and a guard was hiding in the shadows behind the door. "Drop you weapon!" without hesitation, I dropped it. He grabbed by the arm and forced me to walk down the hall. He led me into an office. "Sit down by the desk." I sat down and waited to see what I was sitting for. It felt like I had been sitting for hours when in reality it was only five minutes.

"Hello Mr. Payne." To my utter dismay the man standing before me was none other than James Mason. "What the matter? You seemed surprised." He smiled and then signaled the guard away.

"So Horne works for you?" That was the only question burning through my head at that point.

"Yes, I made her an incredible offer that would not only saved her beloved company but saved her life." He sat down in his chair behind his desk. "Money always talks to the simple minded." He laughed slightly but I didn't find any of this amusing and the look on my face changed his expression fast. "Look Max, if you had just killed your so-called love Mona, you would be in this mess right now. Can you deny that?"

I just stared and shook my head. "I guess not." I paused for a second. "Why'd you tell me to kill Horne?"

"Because I knew you would never find her. You would find me, and you didn't disappoint my expectations." He continued. "You're a great fighter Max, and have guts and that is commendable in my book. Now I am offering you one more chance. Now like I said before, money talks. I am willing to put up to ten million dollars in your account. You can leave town, start a new life."

I leaned back in my chair and thought about for a little while. I looked back with him with a grin. He smiled back. "Ten million dollars?" I asked.

"Yes, and I'm a man of my word Max."

I stood up and started to laugh and he laughed along with me. "You know something Mr. Mason?"

"What Max." He answered with a huge smile on his face.

But mine faded fast. "You need to teach your guard to search an intruder." I pulled out another Beretta out of my jacket and aimed it directly at his head. "Courtesy of one of your wonderful guards at Aesir. For someone who knows everything and watches Aesir very closely, you seemed to have missed me taking your guards weapons." Now the tables were turned and I gave the most evil grin I had ever given. "Money talks to the simple minded? I hate to break your heart Mr. Mason, I'm not that simple, I might fall into a couple of traps but I can dig my way out of any trap set before me. Unless you want to die now, you better tell me where Horne is."

"You are a relentless one Mr. Payne, I'll give you that." His smile started to come back. "But if you kill me, you'll never find out."

I played his bluff. "We'll see about that." I started to pull the trigger.

"Wait, wait, wait, I'll tell you."

After he said it there was a knock on the door. "Boss, you ok."

"I'm fine." He lied, he tried to sound as calm as possible. I heard the guard walk away. "Ok, they're at Aesir Labs."

"How could they be at Aesir Labs? We condemned that building and burned everything that was in that place after we believed Horne to be dead."

"You cops would think so wouldn't you?" He chuckled. "You always think that you have everything solved when all you're doing is adding to the fire that is burning right in front of your blind eyes."

"Too bad you won't see that fire anymore." BANG! The gunshot echoed throughout the house and all of a sudden I heard several guards running down the hall. I went to the window in the room, opened it and ran like hell. By the time the guards got to the room, I was already out of sight. They had surprisingly chosen not to look for me. I kept looking in back of me to check but no one was in sight.

Aesir Labs was the original building where Aesir had made all of their products before they had money to move into a bigger place. I had never actually seen it, I had only heard of bits and pieces from Bravura. When he and his men checked the place out after I had supposedly killed Horne, there was nothing but Aesir's old machines in it. But just to make sure there was no way Project Valhalla could be restarted, they burned everything inside to ashes and placed a fence around the building and condemned it for good. After a while we had forgotten the building even existed, which now turned out to be our mistake.

I walked all the way back to the city. I feared by the time I finally found where Horne was I would be too late and Stacy would be dead. I couldn't let that happen; I wouldn't let that happen. When I got back to the city I started to head back to the Subway, Aesir labs was only three blocks away from Aesir headquarters. I didn't even make two blocks until I heard a car heading my way. Judging by the look of the car it was none other than George Loreto, one of New Yorks finest cops, a legend of some officer's minds. I didn't like so much. He pulled up next to me and rolled down his window. "Get in." He said immediately. I looked around very suspiciously and finally got in.

"What do you want, I'm a little busy." I said with anger, I didn't feel like being taken away from my mission.

"You need to come back to the station with me." He said with a sense of urgency.

"I can't I'm trying to find…"

"Stacy, I know, we all know." He interrupted. "We need to get the whole station on this. You can't do this alone."

"Really, you mean that or do you just want another glory story on your resume." I said

"What it is you have against me Max. I've been on the force for over twenty years; I've busted my ass off."

"Really, that's not the man I remember meeting eight years ago. The only person I met was a washed up cop who didn't look anything like the hero that so many officers admired and looked up to."

"You should talk, the cop who is surprisingly not fired or in jail for killing hundreds of people between 2001 and 2003, some of them innocent bystanders, after the murder of his wife and child." He stopped at a red light and looked directly at me. "I know what revenge is Max but you're lucky to still wear that badge on your belt. Now, we can keep arguing or we can save Stacy, your choice." I stared at him for a little while, turned my head away and said "Pull over."

"What?" He said immediately

"I said pull over!" He quickly pulled over to the side of the road and I opened the door to get out.

"Max come on!"

"Hey you gave me a choice, argue or save Stacy and I don't want argue."

"You can't do this alone Max!"

"I've always worked alone and I'm not going to change now."

He stared at me with the most confused look. "What is it with you Max, we offer help and all you do is spit it back in our faces." He took a deep breath and continued. "You can change Max, everyone can change."

"I CAN'T CHANGE!" I said out of complete anger over what he had just said. "I can't, and I've tried to explain that to you, to Stacy and to everyone else on that damn force that has asked me nothing but questions!" I started to walk away and then I realized that I wasn't done yet and turned back around. "You all think that I can go back to the person I was five years ago but the truth is I am so far away from that side of me that I have no clue who I am anymore! And you're right, innocent bystanders have been killed because of me and another innocent person is being held by Horne and is going to die because of me and I'm not going to let that happen; even if I have to die trying! Goodbye Loreto!" I walked away.

"MAX!" I heard him shout, but I wasn't turning back for anything.


	4. Chapter 4

I walked a few blocks until I got to the subway entrance. I stood around waiting for the train to come. I walked a little closer to the tracks as I heard it coming but then I noticed something at the corner of my eye. I looked over and was stunned to see the V symbol on one of the pillars. This was a sign that I had to try and finish this fast.

When I got on the train, things didn't get any better. The V symbol was all over the train. Everyone else ignored them; saw them as nothing more than spray paintings. I was the only one who knew what they really meant. When I got off the train I headed back outside. Aesir Labs was only two blocks away. It was located on Rosa St, a street that had earned the reputation as the quietest street in New York. No one in the city would ever go down it.

The street was filled with nothing more than dead businesses. Businesses that had all been shut down for illegal activity but none were as bad as Aesir. Aesir labs was a small two story building that was slowly starting to fall apart. The big sign that use to say Aesir was almost completely unrecognizable under a bunch of spray paintings and almost all of the windows had been smashed by rocks. The huge condemned sign still hung in the front door. After a few moments of hesitation I finally walked in.

The inside of the building wasn't any better. Cobwebs were everywhere and pieces of the ceiling were beginning to fall off. Everything was dead quiet, so quiet that every footstep I took echoed throughout the building. With no power in the building, the outside street lights were the only way I could see where I was going. I held my berretta firmly in my hand ready for anything. But I knew deep down that anything was never everything. The further I walked through the building the dimmer the light outside got and it became much harder to see. Once I got to the point where I couldn't see anymore I began to hear noises coming from a distance. I walked blindly forward, following the sound.

But before I could go any further a huge light turned on in back of me. I quickly turned around to see Horne before me. "Good evening Mr. Payne. You predictably came here. Oh, don't worry, we haven't killed her yet, we're having too much fun listening to her scream." She smiled sadistically. "Too bad you won't be able to see." One of her men wheeled her over to a door that was behind her. When she opened it three of her men came out holding leashed to 6 Rottweiler's who were muzzled but their growls definitely weren't promising me anything good. "Let's see how you handle this."

After she said that I quickly ran. I heard the guards take the muzzles off the dogs and their barks echoed throughout the building. They finally let them loose and all six of them were after me. The light was still on in the background. I stopped and looked back aimed my berretta. BAM!! With that one shot, the bullet went through one of the dogs head and hit the dog behind him; Two down and four to go. I spotted another door and tried to go through but it was locked. The hall was long but it wasn't long enough as I got closer to the end. I had to think fast. I put my berretta back in my coat and got out the shotgun I had hidden under my jacket. With no time to fire I raised the shotgun like a baseball bat and swung with all my might and hit one of the dogs with so much for it him flying into another dog and they went straight through the window at the end of the hall.

There were two dogs left, when one went to jump I finally took aim. BAM! The force of the shot sent the dog sliding down the floor but I couldn't pump the shotgun soon enough as the last dog jumped and bit me right in the arm. I fell over with the dog landing on top of me. I tried to push him off but every attempt felt like he was going to take my arm with him. With my free arm I tried to reach for my berretta but the dog's body was lying right on the spot where I had placed it. Then with all the fury I could muster I clenched my fist and began to pound away at the dogs head. After two big punches the dog finally let go and got off. But in almost a split second he jumped again but that split second was enough for me to get my gun out. BAM! The dog landed on me and his blood started to drop right on my cloths. With one arm I shoved him off.

When I got up Horne and her men were no longer there. I walked back down the hall, stepping on what seemed to be a never ending line of blood from the dogs with my shotgun tightly held in my hands. When I reached the end of the hall where the huge light was, I had my shotgun in the air ready to fire at anything in front of me. But from behind me a door burst open and one of Horne's men and pushed me hard into the while, which caused the shotgun to slip out of my hands. Before I could even turn around a huge fist came crashing down on my face with such force it almost knocked me completely off my feet. He raised his fist for another punch right as I saw it head towards me I ducked fast, which caused him to punch the wall.

"AAAAHHH!!!" His scream of pain was so loud it hurt my ears. I stood back up and with all the force I could gather, punched his lights almost completely out. He fell over on to his knees. I got the shotgun and pointed it straight at his head. He immediately started to beg. "Please, please, don't kill me." This tough guard who just a second ago was beating me up was pleading.

"Sorry, forgiveness is just not my thing." BAM! He fell to the ground and everything went silent again. That was the last bullet that was in my shotgun. I threw it down and grabbed his pistol. I walked a little forward and then I heard the noise I had heard earlier. I walked to the door where the noise was coming from. I slowly opened it. The doorway led to a set of stares that led down into what appeared to be the basement of the building. I slowly walked down and the closer I got to the bottom, the louder the noise got.

I finally reached the door that led to the basement and tried to open it silently. When I finally opened it there was no one actually in the room, but the room was filled with running machines that were making the Valkyr drug. I walked further into the room to get a better look, closing the door behind me. There were twelve machines, each making at least a thousand each judging by the amount of containers loaded into them. Walking further into the room I noticed another door at the end of it. Shadows of the people walking in the room showed at the bottom of the door. I quickly got out my berretta and headed towards the door. I stood at the side of the door and raised my foot to kick it opened. BAM BAM BAM!!! But before I could even get a chance bullets started flying through the door nonstop. I was forced to move quickly out of the way.

I heard them run up to the door after the gunfire had stopped and I immediately ran behind one of the machines. The door opened and I quickly looked into the room. Stacy was tied up and unconscious on the table in the room and four of Horne's men came walking out and closed the door. "You know our orders." One of them said. "Search and destroy." I immediately got up. BAM BAM BAM! My three shots nailed one of them and he fell straight down. But I was forced to duck down immediately as a load of machine gun fire came directly my weight. All the glass containers above me were shattering and I had to cover up as it landed around me. "KILL HIM NOW!!" One of them yelled furiously.

"What the hell is going on out there?" I heard Horne's voice over their radios.

"We're having a little bit of trouble Ms. Horne."

"All of that gunfire and you're having trouble? Don't you dare fail me." She said very sternly. But as he was talking I got up again. BAM! Nailed him straight in the head but the other two guards were quick to react. BAM BAM BAM! They sprayed bullets all over the room all of the glass in the room was shattering and landing all over the place. They finally ceased fire.

"Check the room and if he is still alive, tare him to shreds." One of the guards ordered. I could hear their footsteps coming closer. I reached into my jacket to grab the other pistol. I aimed my berretta one way and the pistol the other. They finally walked into my view. BAM!! Both shots hit them right in their legs. "AHHHH!" They screamed simultaneously and I stood up quickly and took aim at their heads. BAM! They dropped like rocks and without even looking back I had my eyes set on that door. I walked straight to the door and kicked it open with all my might but to my dismay there was no one in the room when I went in.

In that small room I tried desperately to find a secret passage. There was no way they had gotten out of that room without one. After looking for a little while I finally noticed a tall safe that was slightly cracked opened. I went to it and opened it. To my surprise it wasn't a safe at all. It was a safe door that led to a set of stairs that looked like they led to the rook of the building. I ran up the stairs and kicked opened the door to the roof. When I ran onto the roof there was Horne and one of her men standing right next to her, he had set stay down and she lay motionless on the roof.

"You want her, you can have her." Horne shouted. In the distance behind her I noticed a helicopter heading straight towards us. I could only assume it was Horne's. "It won't matter anyhow, because my drug is already making its way across the city." She then looked at her guard. "Tell him to land right behind us." He nodded his head and ran to the edge of the roof and singled to it where to land. She looked back at me. "A lot of people think my drug is a bad thing. Well there wrong. My drug only does what they want it to do, end their lives.

"There are over eight million people down there who think their lives are in hell." She smiled. "They are told to believe that V will show them the light, will show them heaven. But what they fail to realize is that they are already in heaven; that their lives are not even close to as bad as it seems. Thru V they get to see how good their lives really were and what real hell looks like before they die. It makes them feel guilty and makes them feel foolish. It shows them REALITY. No one likes reality anymore unless it's on some stupid T.V. show. Everyone hates reality because it tells them the one thing that none of them want to here, the truth. I will show them the truth and they're soon going to learn that their lies and deceits lead to nothing but their death.

She walked closer to me but her mouth didn't stop. "If anyone knows reality it's you Mr. Payne. You left your dream world when you first heard my voice the day you found your family killed." She smiled wider. "I ended your dream myself, and I didn't even have to drug you to do so. I know what's going through your head. You think if you kill me with one of those guns you clutch in your hands that it will be all over. But what you fail to realize, like many of those people down there, is that the real pain is from revenge. Revenge only drives a person deeper down into the abyss, it drops you down to your enemy's level."

I stood still staring at her for what seemed like an eternity. Then finally my mind was finally clear, I could see the end more clearly now than ever. "So be it." I said with a very low tone and I raised my berretta and aimed straight at her head.

She simply smiled again. "Welcome Mr. Payne, welcome to my level." She gave a very sinister laugh but my ears were through listening to her. BAM!

In my eyes the bullet went in slow motion. I could see all of the things that had happened to me over the past five years right in front of me in that one single shot and then it finally hit her straight in the head and she went flying back and hit the ground, and the images went away. Her guard surprisingly did nothing but make a run for the helicopter and yelled at the pilot to take off. At that point, I could care less about him.

I walked closer to Horne's now lifeless body and saw that the smile was still on her face, even in death. After staring, I finally was able to take it in. I grabbed Stacy and walked back down. When I walked out the front door, I could hear the cop sirens coming my way. The cop cars were speeding up the street and finally made a stop in front of me and George Loreto got out. "So I guess you're going to say I told you so." He said.

They took Stacy and I to the hospital, she had finally woken up on the way there. She was shaken up but she seemed fine. I lay in the hospital bed and was finally relaxed for the first time in years. After about an hour Loreto came walking in.

"Well, we couldn't find where Horne's guard and helicopter went, she somehow managed to design to where it couldn't be seen on radar but Horne's body was taken to the city morgue. "If I were to follow the rulebook, I would be arresting you right now for murder." He said with a serious look but it faded into a smile fast. "But I'm not."

"Why not?" I immediately asked.

"Because you did what you had to do to get Stacy." He paused but the smile never faded. "It would have happened sooner if you had listened to me but every officer in the waiting room owes a debt of gratitude to you. You are a brave man Max, a little hard headed but brave."

"I'm not necessarily brave. The only reason I won this whole thing was because over the last few years, I've run on nothing but guts and not really caring whether I lived or died." I looked straight into his eyes. "That's not bravery." I looked away.

"Maybe not in your eyes Max but from what I saw in that building when we picked you up, that showed me a man who deserves to be cop." He said very sincerely and I was stunned to hear it come out of his mouth. I turned my head to look at him but he was already gone.

After laying down a little while longer, I finally got out of the bed and went to look out the window. I looked around outside and out of the corner of my eyes I saw a blurry reflection standing at the door to my room.

I turned around and Mona stood in front of me. "Hello Max."

**THE END**


End file.
